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Press Release
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| Minister Kapil Sibal awards
scholarships to top SSN Students |
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"One of the largest
scholarships awarded by any private educational institution
to deserving scholars, many from extremely challenged
backgrounds" |
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Wednesday, 4 November 2009, Chennai.
Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource
Development, today presented the prestigious annual SSN
scholarships worth Rs 4 Crore to meritorious scholars - an
SSN Institutions endeavor to make world class education
accessible to students from economically weak strata. The
scholarships were awarded at a ceremony held today at the
SSN Institutions, Chennai.
Shri K Ponmudy, Minister for Higher Education, Government of
Tamil Nadu was the guest of honor at the function, attended
by several Government officials, industry and academia. R
Srinivasan, Chairman, SSN Institutions (Founder & CEO,
Redington and globally renowned entrepreneur), Shiv Nadar,
Founder HCL, and Chairman, The Shiv Nadar Foundation and
Kala Vijayakumar, President, SSN Institutions were also
present.
The SSN Institutions (www.ssn.edu.in) are a landmark
initiative of The Shiv Nadar Foundation (www.shivnadarfoundation.com).
They have done exceptional work in their 14 years of
existence and SSN is today an India top 10 private
engineering college, and the No.1 private engineering
college in Tamil Nadu.
A little known fact about SSN is the significant scholarship
support that SSN provides to over 450 students totaling Rs.4
Crore (~$850K) every year. Since its inception ~ Rs.30 Crore
(~$7Mn) worth of scholarships have been disbursed to ~3000
deserving students, many from extremely challenged
backgrounds. It is the largest scholarship given to the
students by any private institute in an attempt to fill real
need gaps for deserving students, taking the positive impact
of education to where it can truly transform and uplift
lives. SSN institution aims to induct and transform
meritorious rural students from economically disadvantaged
backgrounds, providing them not just free, world class
education, but also mentoring and nurturance - allowing them
to transcend the disadvantages they face and compete with
their urban counterparts.
The Institutions, in a professional effort to scale up and
make the SSN Scholarships more inclusive, had recently
reached out to like minded corporate and individual donors,
many of whom have already committed to providing endowment
support to SSN Institutions to the tune of several Crore.
These include several global majors that are institutions of
excellence in their own right - CA, Redington, Oracle, HCL,
Kotak, Reliance Capital, PWC, a leading aircraft
manufacturer and last but not least the faculty and Alumni
of SSN who are now giving back to the institution. The not
for profit Vamasundari Scholarship Trust has been
specifically created to receive these endowments which will
be professionally managed to scale up the scholarship
benefits and make education accessible for more deserving
aspirants. Speaking on the occasion R Srinivasan said, "I
hardly know how to thank our donors enough on behalf of
students whose lives they will alter. More than the
contribution alone is the weight and credibility they have
added by vesting their belief in our vision."
The SSN Institutions were established in Chennai in 1996,
with a vision to provide the brightest students from all
walks of life the access to world class education. Driven to
become one of the world's definitive research universities,
The SSN Institutions stand out in their deep commitment to
research, and global partnerships such as with the Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburg, USA, among others. The SSN
Research Centre has some globally renowned scientific minds
guiding cutting edge research at both undergraduate and post
graduate levels.
The beneficiaries of the SSN Institutions' prestigious
scholarships are students who have fought hard to achieve
top ranks and who actually need it the most. The
heartwarming stories of students like Senthilnathan, the
night watchman at SSN who went on to become a security
analyst at Wipro, are lore at SSN and elicit tenderness and
pleasure.
Presenting the scholarships, Shri Kapil Sibal stressed on
the need for education for all and said that institutions of
excellence such as SSN and are much needed in the country.
Shri K Ponmudy was pleased to meet the students and faculty
at SSN and see the dramatic transformation the strong willed
scholars have undergone to come at par with the urban
counterparts. |
| About The Shiv Nadar Foundation: |
The Shiv Nadar Foundation has been
established by Shiv Nadar, the Founder of HCL - a $5 billion
leading Global Technology and IT Enterprise, which employs
over 60,000 employees across 26 countries. The 33 year old
Enterprise, founded in 1976, is one of India's original IT
garage start-ups and offers diverse business aligned
technology solutions spanning the entire hardware and
software spectrum, to a focused range of industry verticals.
The Shiv Nadar Foundation is committed to the creation of a
more equitable, meritocracy based society and to empower
individuals to bridge the socio-economic divide. The
Foundation aims to achieve these primarily through
outstanding educational institutions, which provide
meritorious students from all walks of life the opportunity
to receive world class education.
So far, the Foundation has set up the SSN Institutions,
comprising the SSN College of Engineering (SSNCE), the SSN
School of Management and Computer Applications (SoMCA) and
the SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering (SASE) in
Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The SSNCE has, in a short span of 10
years, become an India top 10 private engineering college
(Outlook, June 07; Mint, 24 June 09). Building on the
experience from successfully running the SSN Institutions,
the Shiv Nadar Foundation now proposes to set up the Shiv
Nadar University close to Delhi, which will be located in a
286 acre campus adjacent to Greater Noida. The vision is to
create a centre of excellence in education at par with
premier education institutions worldwide. The Institution
will take up education at the under-graduate and
post-graduate levels, and will also have a strong focus on
high quality, result oriented research. The land for the
Institution has been acquired and plans are underway.
The Shiv Nadar Foundation also inaugurated its first
VidyaGyan School on 8 August 2009, in Bulandshahr, Uttar
Pradesh. VidyaGyan is a radical concept, which in
partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh aims to
select, induct and transform meritorious rural children from
economically disadvantaged backgrounds, providing them free,
world class education - allowing them to transcend the
disadvantages they face and compete with their urban
counterparts. VidyaGyan also hopes to provide them the
finest mentoring and nurturance completely free of cost to
give them the opportunity to become tomorrow's world
leaders.
In a 5-6 year timeframe, the project aspires to set up a
chain of such schools that will enroll ~5000 students across
Uttar Pradesh state.
The first batch of ~200 rural toppers of the 5th grade state
board exam from across 20 districts of UP have joined the
6th grade in VidyaGyan. The Foundation hopes that this will
raise many more aspirations and contribute to leveling the
urban-rural divide and inspire many others to undertake more
such initiatives.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Shray Sharma
HCL
Mob: + 91 9811486436
E-mail: shray.sharma@hcl.in
Anurag Nigam
Adfactors Public Relations
Mob: + 91 9711306377
E-maill:
anurag.nigam@adfactorspr.com
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