Mangalore: R V Deshpande awards World Konkani Centre scholarships worth Rs 2.5 cr

Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore

Mangalore, Sep 2: As many as 596 engineering and 28 MBBS students received scholarships worth Rs 2.5 crores from the Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund (VKSSF), established by World Konkani Center (WKC), at a programme held at T V Raman Pai Hall on Monday September 2.

The award ceremony was inaugurated by R V Deshpande, minister for higher education and tourism. He also awarded scholarships to students along with other dignitaries.

MLA J R Lobo, T V Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education, Ramadas Kamath U, chairman of VKSSF, World Konkani Center president Basti Vaman Shenoy, Annappa Kamath shared the dais.

Speaking after awarding scholarships, minister Deshpande said, "In the 21st century, entire world economy is revolving around education. One should struggle hard to possess good health and most importantly, knowledge."

He added, "The global economy today is in a bad shape and India cannot grow today in isolation. But this phase will soon pass as future of India is very bright especially for the youth. Along with good education, the youth should acquire good qualities, good character, and walk on the path of truth.

"Nobody is as intelligent as the Indian student in the whole world. The best thing the government can do is least interfere in the educational activities and only support the sector. In this direction, the government is giving importance to innovation, autonomy to colleges, evolving the concept of community colleges and so on," he said.

"The government of India spends about Rs 2,50,000 crore on education and everything cannot be done by it. These kinds of scholarship programmes are doing their job in assisting students," said the minister, lauding the organizers of the scholarship programme. He also advised students to help others once they succeed in life.

MLA J R Lobo said, "Education has become very expensive in the present day and many of them are unable to afford quality education. In this direction, World Konkani Center is doing a noble work in uplifting the community through education.

"The Indian population comprises 48% youth and if our programmes concentrate on them, then there is no doubt that our country will be one of the strongest nations in the world," he added.

Speaking further, he said the district has mainly grown because of the importance given to education by people of previous generations.

T V Mohandas Pai in his keynote address said, "The scholarship programme is mainly for the unity of the community with the view of preserving our culture, heritage and making our community economically strong. India will be poorer if Konkani language dies as it has long years of history.

"The main wealth of our nation is education which creates human capital and nobody can take it away. Students should excel intellectually and inculcate problem solving capability, and not just mug up books," he said.

"No child should be deprived of higher education as children are the future of our society," he said to the higher education minister, and urged him to concentrate on this aspect.

As an advice to students, he asked them to have curiosity, study more, be specialists and be up to date on the rapid changes taking place around them. "The students, once they finish their studies, should be entrepreneurs and not job seekers," he added.

"There is not much economic activity taking place in Mangalore, hence it is very important to create action plan on how to create jobs and in this direction we need people to market Mangalore. The government has been spending crores of money on giving rice at subsidized rates, instead it should concentrate on creating jobs which is the need of the hour," he added.

Basti Vaman Shenoy said the scholarship aims mainly to uplift the youth of the community. "Our Konkani identity will grow only if students have a good future and they bring name to our community," he said.

Ramadas Kamath U in his welcome address said, "VKSSF has awarded 860 engineering and 43 MBBS scholarships from the past 3 years amounting to Rs 3.5 crore, and this year they are distributing scholarship worth Rs 2.5 crore. The VKSSF also has a study abroad scholarship for higher education abroad, with scholarship amounting to Rs 1 lac a year per student and this year they will award five scholarships under this category."

"Along with awarding scholarships, we also conduct training programmes for students," he added.

On behalf of the scholarship recipients, Lenita Menezes and Raghavendra Bhandarkar expressed gratitude and shared their experiences.

Venkatesh N Baliga, secretary of World Konkani Center compered the programme while Gurudath Bantwalkar delivered the vote of thanks.