Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Aug 25: Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund, established by World Konkani Centre, Mangalore will award Scholarships worth Rupees One Crore to over 300 Engineering and MBBS students from economically backward families of Konkani communities in an award ceremony to be held on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 11 am at T V Raman Pai Convention Centre, Kodialbail, Mangalore.
Scholarships amounting Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 40,000 will be awarded for the Engineering and MBBS aspirants respectively.
Scholarships will be distributed on this occasion by T V Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Universal Learning, in the august presence of R V Deshapande, Chairman Emeritus, Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation. The Function will be presided by Dr P Dayananda Pai, Chairman, Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation. eminent educationist, managing director of Ryan International Group, Madam Grace Pinto and Industrialist M Jagannath Shenoi, Mysore will grace the function as guests of honour.
Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund
‘Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund’ envisages grant of educational scholarship to economically backward students having Konkani language as their mother tongue. Instituted in the year 2010 as envisioned by the eminent thinker and corporate leader T V Mohandas Pai the VKSSF has successfully raised and distributed Rs. 50 Lacs to 162 deserving Konkani speaking students in the year 2010. Eminent Konkani Philanthropists like Dr P Dayanand Pai, Ramadas Kamath U., K V Kamath, Jagannath Shenoi, Dr T Ranjan Pai, Ronald Colaco, Madam Grace Pinto, A Annappa S Kamath, Rohan Monteiro, Pradeep G Pai and many more have come forward in support of this fund.
This year VKSSF installed an online application and verification module to bring greater functionality to the programme. The online software was designed under the guidance of Venkatesh N Baliga, secretary, World Konkani Centre and Gokulnath Prabhu, CEO Oasys Information Technology, Dubai, UAE.
Application Window period was open from 5th June 2011 up to 10th July 2011. Total 352 applications received apart from 162 re-applications by beneficiaries of 2010 batch. An Application scrutiny committee comprising of eminent educationists and bankers screened applications to select over 300 most deserving and meritorious students from Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Goa belonging to different castes and religions.
New Initiatives
In view of widening the scope to the scholarship fund and to include preliminary and qualifying courses to the existing setup, Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund has designed a new scheme to support educational quest of PUC Students. Special thrust will be given to the Konkani speaking communities from Kerala, Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka and Mumbai City who are in dire living conditions.
In a major attempt to empower economically backward Konkani speaking communities like, Kudubi, Kharvi, Siddi etc. the VKSSF is planning to initiate a new scholarship scheme for the high school level students from these communities.
Ramdas Kamath U., Chairman of Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund, has informed in his press statement that both these two schemes will be announced in the award ceremony.
Governance of the Fund
As the Fund is functioning on the basis of ‘Stream’ concept, the entire amount generated every year will be distributed to the beneficiaries and no separate corpus will be maintained. Contributions to the Fund will be eligible for Tax Exemption under section 80(G) of the Income Tax Act.
‘Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund’ is administered by a Governing Council comprising eminent personalities. U. Ramadas Kamath, Senior Vice President, Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore is the Chairman of the Fund and Pradeep G. Pai, Managing Director of Hangyo Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd., is the secretary. The council is also guided by Basti Vaman Shenoy, the founder and the president of World Konkani Centre and Board of Trustees of Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation.