Mangalore: Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund Issues Scholarships Worth Rs 1 Crore
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS/VA)
Mangalore, Aug 26: Scholarships Worth Rs 1 Crore was distributed to engineering and MBBS students by Vishwa Konkani student scholarship fund, established by World Konkani Centre, Mangalore at the T V Raman Pai Convention Hall, here on Friday August 26.
Addressing the gathering, the key note speaker T V Mohandas Pai, chairman, Manipal Universal learning, said that as there are so many developments taking place in the educational sector, the present generation students should not miss such opportunities.
“In India only 13 percent of youngsters are pursuing their higher studies and very large group of students remain unproductive.
In India lack of suitable medical care has resulted in the increasing number of death among children which needs to be changed and it is possible through transformation in education sector which can even eradicates poverty”, he stressed.
Konkani speaking people who are about 25 lac across the globe should be the most powerful minority community by another 20 years, he hoped and said that we are responsible to preserve our songs, dramas, stories and literature and said linking them through website is the easiest way of doing it. He called upon the students to be creative and innovative than being mere graduates.
Grace Pinto, MD, Ryan International Group of Institutions, the guest of honour in her lively talk in the programme called upon the students to take a pledge of being the winner through respecting their parents. She said when an individual starts gaining in life; he or she also should start giving in life.
M Jagannath Shenoy, MD, Ganesh Beedi Works, Mysore said that one should be proud of their surnames as it resembles their identity and language.
B R Bhat, throwing light on the uniqueness of Konkani fund which has its collaboration with the corporation bank said that the Konkani scholarship fund is taking care of entire course period and monetary mechanism is done regularly and the sanction procedure is simple. Through website of the bank, the eligible candidates can avail their scholarship fund in any branch of the country.
In all, scholarships worth Rs 1 crore was distributed to Engineering and MBBS students. MBBS students were given Rs 40,000 each and engineering students were given Rs 30,000 each. On the occasion Gurudath Bantwalkar was felicitated for representing Konkani language in the recently held Wikimenia conference held in Israel. Basti Vaman Shenoy, president, World Konkani Centre presided.
Ramdas Kamath U, chairman, VKSSF welcomed. Pradeep G Pai delivered vote of thanks. Raghunath Shet, Rohan Monteiro, Ammembala Badrinath Kamath were present on the dais.
Later addressing the presspersons at a press conference, Ramadas Kamath U said that this is the second year the Vishwa Konkani Kendra is distributing the scholarships to the community students. He revealed that in coming years they have plans to distribute scholarships to Siddi and other Konkani speaking students amounting to Rs 25 lac. Under Kshamata training programme Konkani students will be given training and already three programmes are over this year. The programme for Konkani youth also includes mentoring programme, he said.