History of Pravara complex begins with an extraordinary figure Padmashri Dr. Vithalrao Vikhe Patil, the great son of the soil, who devoted his entire life for spreading sunshine in an otherwise dark and gloomy world of the impoverished sugar cane growers and marginal farmers, landless laborers and downtrodden. He realized that cooperative movement was the only way to save and resurrect poor peasants from the doom. His mission was accomplished when he established Asia’s first co-operative sugar factory at Pravaranagar in 1948. The success of sugar factory acted as a catalyst in promoting other processing units such as Distillery, Paper and Pulp Factory, Chemical Plant in Pravaranagar as nebula of growth in the area. Thus the movement, which began as a small step, becomes a giant leap for the villagers.

The late Padmashri was fully convinced that the root cause of backwardness of villagers was lack of good educational facilities and that the socioeconomic upliftment of rural society was possible with women’s education as well as participation in the process of development in rural setting. Thus was established Pravara Rural Education Society in the year 1964, followed by Kanya Vidya Mandir (1969) and Padmashri Vikhe Patil college of Arts, Science and Commerce (1971), there by bringing education to the door steps of the rural children.

A strong need was realized for awareness generation among the people, about hygiene, and good health apart from a general need for health and services. With this objective the Pravara Medical Trust was established in 1972.

The villagers for improvement keenly felt necessity of financial services in farming, general education of their wards, and for starting small-scale ventures. This gave rise to Pravara Cooperative Bank in the year 1975.

For the betterment of rural community, especially, the destitute and down-trodden, ways and means were required to be found and suitable training programmes were to be conducted in the fields of education, health, nutrition, self employment, agricultural research, extension and demonstration. To fulfill these needs Pravara, Institute of Research and Education in Natural and Social Sciences was established in 1983.

In a nutshell, Pravara and Loni in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State in India has undergone incredible transformation and rightly offers a model for illustration of the infrastructure and facilities for upliftment of the rural masses in any state/country. Today it has developed into a seat of learning that, comprises over 30 educational institutions including Medical, Dental, Engineering, Architect, Pharmacy, Nursing, Women’s polytechnic, Home Science and Management. Students from all four corners of the country come here for seeking admissions to various courses. What is more some of the institutions are seeking a status of a Deemed University reflecting the remarkable transformation of a ‘Hamlet to a Hub of Education’. Thus Loni can boost of being “One of the Key Educational Centers in India”.

Following are some of the institutes