By: Vijay Kumar Verma, Editor-ICN Group
SHIMLA: As a part of its major CSR initiatives to promote Education and skill development of the youth, SJVN Foundation will award 250 meritorious students with Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarships this year. 147 beneficiary students from Himachal Pradesh, will be awarded scholarship cheques amounting to Rs. 24000 each at a function at Shimla on 6th January 2019 with Hon’ble Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Justice Surya Kant, as chief guest.
Nand Lal Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, SJVN informed this reporter that these 147 meritorious students had been selected on the basis of their performance in class 12 examinations conducted by CBSE, ICSE and State Education boards in 2018. These students, he added, were already pursuing their graduation courses in various streams of their choice. Among the beneficiaries is Miss Vidya Sharma from the state who scored 99.40 percent in her class 12 CBSE and is pursuing commerce graduation from Sri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi. The scholarship cheques amounting to Rs. 24,000 each are on account of their first year of study which is given at a rate of Rs.2000 per month, he told.
Nand Lal Sharma informed that SJVN had launched this Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarship Scheme to coincide with the Silver Jubilee year of its formation in 2012. He told that beginning with 150 scholarships to the students of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the scheme was later expanded to include students from other states of its operations. Presently, Sharma told that every year SJVN was awarding 250 meritorious students from four states of its operations namely Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Maharashtra. For the year 2018-19, he told that while 147 students from Himachal Pradesh were being awarded at Shimla, the remaining 103 students from other states will be awarded shortly at the company’s project offices in the respective states of its operations. The number of beneficiary students, he told, had reached 1387 this year and the company was providing scholarships worth about Rs. 2 crore to these students every year. Currently, he told, around 1000 students are getting the benefits every year. It is a matter of great satisfaction for SJVN, Sharma expressed that a number of the beneficiaries were already gainfully employed in multinational companies getting pay packages around Rs. 5 lac per annum. A large number of students he added were also pursuing postgraduate studies in the field of Accountancy, Law, Business Management and Medicine.
Sharma also expressed his happiness that a good number of beneficiaries included girl students and in the current list also as many as 116 beneficiaries are girls. In the very first year of commencement of the scheme, he told, there were 69 girl students amongst 147 beneficiary students. This is another step towards women’s empowerment he said.
Talking about the various CSR measures being undertaken by SJVN, Sharma told that the company was providing a budget of about Rs. 38 crore for activities related to Health and Hygiene, Education and skill Development, Infrastructure and sustainable Development etc. He told that during the past year an expenditure of Rs.6.86 crore had been incurred on the activities related to promotion of education and skill development alone.
The Silver Jubilee Merit Scholarship Scheme, Sharma informed, aims at inculcating competitive spirit among students and assists them pursue higher studies in different streams. In order to sustain their competitive spirits, Sharma told, SJVN had made it compulsory for the beneficiaries to qualify each annual examination of the study to determine continuation of the scholarship.
Sharma further told that there was a special consideration for the students from BPL families and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) as out of the total number of scholarships, 30% and 10% respectively, are reserved for students from these categories.
