Goa, the smallest state of the Indian Union, is known for its excellent civic amenities, advanced infrastructure, tourism, hospitality and most significantly the quality of education. Goa Vidyaprasarak Mandal (G.V.M.) is one such educational institution which is committed to deliver education par excellence from K.G. to P.G.

On the auspicious day 12 June 1986 (Saka 1908 Jyestha Sukla Paksha Panchami), Goa Vidyaprasarak Mandal’s College of Commerce and Economics was established in Ponda. The college came to be officially renamed as Goa Vidyaprasarak Mandal’s Gopal  Govind Poi Raiturcar College of Commerce and Economics on 13 March 1994 (Saka 1915 Phalgun Shukla Paksha Pratipada).

A group of eminent personalities, freedom fighters and social workers driven by the concern and zeal for providing education among the residents of Ponda taluka established Goa Vidyaprasarak Mandal, the parent body of the college, on the auspicious day, 2 October 1911, which marks the Gandhi Jayanti and Lal Bahadur Shastry Jayanti. Goa Vidyaprasarak Mandal has not left a single stone unturned in its journey for last 111 years in the delivery of education to the masses; may it be at KinderGarten, primary, secondary, higher secondary, graduation, post-graduation level or even in preparing students for IIT entrance exam through its Adarsh Higher Secondary School. Mandal also has set up a secondary school “G.V.M.’s Utkarsh Vidyamandir” in 2017 (CICSE Board).

The college embarked upon its journey of imparting education with a handful of teaching and non-teaching staff members, three classrooms and approximately 300 pupils. Later on, the College was re-located to a spacious and green landscape to Vidya Sankul at Farmagudi in the year 2000. In January 2015, the College was re-accrediated by National Assessment and Accrediation Council, Bengaluru, with ‘B’ Grade CGPA of 2.70.

 The College has been recognized as a Cluster Research Centre in Economics for Ph.D. Course in Economics from 27th July 2021

The vision-mission statement of the college is:

Vision: “To make the institution a centre of excellence in education and research with focus on multifaceted development of the students and to empower them to become global citizens”.

Mission: “To impart quality education to students to enable them to face the global challenges and mould them to be socially responsible citizens ”.

The present college premises spreads over 15,000 square meters of land in a tranquil area surrounded by lush green landscape which is an ideal place to maintain conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning process.  

The college is committed to cater higher education in the faculty of Commerce stream to the community of students belonging to both rural and urban areas of Ponda taluka in Goa. The college is equipped with the requisite indispensible progressive infrastructure and learning resources such as educational software, educational videos, Audio-Visual aids, Free Wi-Fi facility, access to the renowned libraries of the other countries across the world through software like N-List, Inflibnet in order to meet the advanced demands of the tech-savvy pupil-netizens of the global village. Following the rules and regulations laid down by University Grants Commission and Goa University, the college has adopted and implemented Choice Based Credit System programme which is student-centric and grants students the liberty to choose subjects of their choice. By following all the norms, conditions laid down by the Goa University and Department of Higher Education, the College is committed to a transparent administration, teaching-learning and evaluation system. The college harbours upon reliable research, consultancy, Placement Cell and extensive base to impart higher education in Commerce and allied fields. With education and student oriented learning in its classrooms, the college supplicates the involvement of all its stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, management, industry, voluntary organizations, University, UGC and government agencies. The college offers opportunities for higher education through various programmes such as Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com.), self financed programme in Master of Commerce (M. Com.) and Bachelor of Computer Application (B.C.A.) to cater to the requirements of the students and requests from government from time to time.

The college takes pride on its stepping stones such as knowledge, adequate use of technology, sustainable development and eco-friendly approach, in its aim of fulfilling its mission by moulding students into the ideal citizens of our country.

Hence, the college has taken up responsibility of dealing with various sensitive issues such as garbage management, minimizing the use of plastic and thereby making education more applicable to community and society-oriented. To achieve this, the college has taken up, for last three years, skill based activities such as making paper bags and cloth bags and distributing the same among the shopkeepers, merchants and the general public in Ponda town. Apart from this the college strives to instill competencies in the students by conducting workshops in soft skills. For this purpose experts in the related fields are invited. The National Service Scheme (NSS) enhances awareness among the students about community service, environmental issues and the need to maintain ecological balance. A trek to Palli waterfall, Eco-trail to Wagh Talli was organized to enable students to connect with nature.

The college promotes patriotism among the students through the National Cadet Corps (NCC). Tranformation of the lives of the underprivileged and marginalized is done through sports and games.

The college also organizes visits to business units like Vedanta Ltd. – Pig iron division, Vimal Art Printery, Padmavathi Art Printery.In the recent past as part of investor education and to familiarize the students, to trading in securities a trip to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was organized.

Visit to Central Library was also organized to inculcate the reading habit among students.

In the recent past the Annual College Tour was held to expose the students to the diverse and rich cultural heritage of our nation. Visits to monuments, places of historical significance, temples etc. form a part of the tour package.

The College celebrates ‘Daan-Utsav’ in the first week of October as an activity of Commerce Association. Here, staff members, students are made to look beyond profit which is the core of any commercial activity. Through ‘The My ₹ 10/-campaign’ they are requested to voluntarily donate ₹ 10/- or more towards a social cause. The college identifies a NGO that does remarkable work for the betterment of society and the amount raised through its campaign is donated to the NGO against receipt. The college has humbly donated the amount to organizations such as ‘Sanjeevan’ (caring for Old), National Association of the Blind (NAB) and Sabrcare (caring for children with Cancer), Dilasa Palliative Care Center.

For better and effective teaching-learning process, the College has adopted Integrated Computer Technology for all the courses that it offers. With the funds received through Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), the college has equipped computer laboratory with computers having internet facility 24×7. The College library is equipped with huge collection of books, latest journals, magazines, local as well as national newspapers and e-learning resources which are always available to students. The total number of books in the college library is approximately 24,900. With the view of making learning resources available to public at large, the College has made its library facility available to public community through its Extension Services. Similarly, every visitor of the college is granted free access to its WiFi connectivity. Refreshments are made available at concessional rates at the canteen.The College is equipped with well maintained Audio-Visual Room, 24×7 Generator backup services.

Since inception, the College has been and shall continue to serve the students belonging to all the sections of society such as General, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Minority Community, Weaker sections and Divyaangjan (Persons With Disabilities). The total number of enrolled students across the courses is approximately 690 for the last three years.

The teaching staff members contribute to University, educational and government bodies in various ways such as up-gradation of syllabus, courses, web-sites in the pursuit of facilitating and enriching academic and co-curricular activities. The college faculty is persistently proactive in upgrading their knowledge by undergoing Orientation Programs, Refresher Courses, participating in and organizing national and international level seminars, conferences, workshops, discourses, lectures, undertaking 8 ‘ minor research projects, publication of research papers, completing MOOCs and SWAYAM courses. They are also engaged in mentoring the students community. The College does offer Counseling services to the students. The knowledge, wisdom, experience and expertise of the teaching faculty are continually maneuvered towards the fruitful outcome in the interest of students.

The College takes pride in its competent, experienced and committed faculty with doctoral qualifications and encourages research-related activities. The alumni of the college have carved a niche and have established themselves in various disciplines and professional fields such as Chartered Accountancy, Company Secretaryship, Law, Sports, Music, Applied and Performing Arts and so on. The students of the College have brought laurels in multiple activities such as Maand, Urba, accolades in Sports and games at national and international level. The various national programmes adopted by the college are National Service Scheme (N.S.S.), National Cadet Corps (N.C.C.). Besides the College Students’ Council provides a platform to students to exhibit their talent and also aims at achieving their holistic personality development and overall refinement and growth.

The college is committed for academic excellence and is determined to strengthen the holistic and inclusive development of the student community. Hence, the college proactively organizes diversified academic ventures such as seminars, workshops, conferences, participatory learning, guest-lectures for the benefit of students throughout the academic year. To inculcate team spirit and leadership qualities, the College organises various sports and cultural activities by inviting eminent personalities for motivational and spiritual talks. The College not only observes International Yoga Day st on 21 June every year, but also conducts sessions in Yoga for a peaceful and healthy mind in a healthy body. The College takes cognizance of the meritorious sportspersons (students) and offers them due scholarships and monetary awards through Sports Policy of the college. Through its various associations and clubs, the college nurtures and fosters curricular and co-curricular activities. For the last 37 years, the College is committed towards the substantial improvement in the quality of teaching-learning process and making the education more pertinent and suitable to the growing challenges and needs of the society, industry and government agencies.