2000+ students to get Rs 3.5 cr Vishwa Konkani Scholarship Fund

MANGALURU: In its decennial year of existence, the Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund (VKSSF), established by World Konkani Centre , will award Merit Cum Means Scholarships worth Rs 3.5 crore to 2000 plus students from Konkani Community at a function to be held at the TV Raman Pai Convention Centre here on August 25.

VKSSF was envisioned by the corporate leader TV Mohandas Pai has successfully raised and distributed over 22,000 Scholarships to the tune of Rs. 21.40 Crore.

VKSSF presently has several Scholarship Programmes. The Flagship programme being the Engineering and MBBS Scholarships with a Scholarship Amount of Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000 per year per student respectively. VKSSF has awarded 4730 engineering and MBBS Scholarships since 2010. This year too VKSSF will support the Professional Education quest of 589 engineering and 53 MBBS Scholars.

VKSSF also has a Study Abroad Scholarship for higher education abroad, with Scholarship Amount of Rs. 1 Lakh per year per student. Since 2010 VKSSF has awarded 120 Scholarships under this programme and 36 Scholarships will be awarded this year under this category.

Another programme, KSHAMATA is a development model for all scholarship participants to accomplish with an end result of personal growth, leadership development, and a greater appreciation for the Konkani society in particular and global society in general. Since its inception, Kshamata academy has imparted more than 34,858 man days of trainings in various formats.

Pradeep G. Pai, Secretary of the Fund said the Fund is functioning on the basis of ‘Stream’ concept and the entire amount generated every year is being distributed to the beneficiaries and no separate corpus will be maintained.

World Konkani Centre (WKC) Director Gurudatt Bantwalkar said that the Fund is administered by a Governing Council comprising eminent personalities like Ramadas Kamath U, Executive Vice President of Infosys, the Chairman and Pradeep Pai, MD, Hangyo Ice Creams, as the secretary. The council is also guided by Basti Vaman Shenoy, the founder and the president of WKC and Board of Trustees of Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation.

Vasanthi Ramadas Pai, Trustee, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, will hand over the first scholarship of the year on Sunday. Principal Patron of the Scholarship Programme Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education will deliver the Keynote Address in the presence of Basti Vaman Shenoy, President, World Konkani Centre. The programme will be presided by eminent donor and entrepreneur P Dayananda Pai will host a galaxy of eminent personalities such as D. Vedavyasa Kamath, MLA, Mangaluru South Constituency, Jagadish Kini, CEO, Enterprise 5C and Abhishek Nakhate, Zoom Abroad, UK on the occasion to award the scholarships to deserving students.

Eminent Konkani Philanthropists like Mohandas Pai, Dr. Ranjan Pai, Dayanand Pai, Ramadas Kamath, KV Kamath, M Jagannath Shenoi, Grace Pinto, Ronald Colaco, Ullas Kamath, Nandagopal Shenoy, A Annappa S. Kamath, Gokulnath Prabhu, Sandeep Shenoy, B R Bhat, Jagadish Kini, Pradeep Pai and many more have come forward in support of this fund.