CB BureauIn all, 55 students have been awarded the KC Mahindra Scholarship for post-graduate studies abroad. The awards were decided after conducting interviews online, due to the situation related to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a merit-based scholarship.
The KC Mahindra Education Trust (KCMET), which was founded 65 years ago, has been awarding these interest-free loan scholarships to meritorious students since 1956 to enable them to pursue post-graduate studies overseas in various fields. This year, a total of 1,246 applications were received and after a round of evaluation, 90 candidates were shortlisted to be interviewed by the selection committee comprising of 9 members.
The shortlisted candidates included 23 graduates from the IITs, and the rest were from other well-known educational institutes such as BITS Pilani, the National Law Schools, Lady Shri Ram College, St Xavier’s College, St Stephen’s, and Sir JJ College of Architecture. The candidates had secured admission to several foreign universities including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Pennsylvania, London Business School, LSE, Oxford Cambridge, and ETH Zurich.
The top four scholars will get a scholarship of INR 8 lakh each and the rest will receive a scholarship of INR 4 lakh each. Aimed at enabling higher education for the brightest students in India, the total value of the scholarships awarded this year is Rs 2.36 crores. The scholars will be pursuing their post-graduation in a wide range of subjects including Computer Science, Engineering, MBA, Architecture, Design, Law, Public Policy, and Economics.
The Mahindra Group spokesperson informs CauseBecause that the entire scholarship amount is disbursed at the start of the programme and is not linked to academic performance of the student in the said programme.
According to the organisation, many of the KCMET scholars are conducting research and teaching at reputed institutions, manning and leading national and international banking, commercial and financial institutions, and multinational corporations, providing quality healthcare and legal services, and entering sunrise industries such as IT, biotechnology, computing, including areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
In a press release shared with CB, Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group, said, ‘The ongoing pandemic has significantly disrupted the higher education sector, which is a critical driver of a country’s economic future. Despite these unprecedented times, we were able to facilitate the programme for students through virtual interviews. I hope that each one of our scholars uses this unique opportunity to not only pursue their educational goals, but also creates a positive future impact on the communities in which they live and work.’
For further details on the scholarships, visit: www.kcmet.org