Hyderabad, Apr 18 (IANS): The Indian School of Business (ISB) on Tuesday announced that its alumnus Neeraj Arora, Vice President at WhatsApp, has instituted a perpetual merit-cum-need based scholarship for a deserving woman student of its flagship Post-Graduate Programme in Management (PGP).

The first recipient of the scholarship is Salini Tiwari, a dental surgeon from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who has done a commendable job in improving the healthcare facilities and support to the inhabitants of the islands, ISB said in a statement.

Salini has been serving in the community and district hospitals in rural areas of north and middle Andamans raising awareness for oral diseases in surrounding villages in the islands. She has also devised a computerised system of record collection and data storage which is extensively used in these institutes.

This is the second such scholarship from an individual ISB alumnus. The first was the Phoenix Nurture India scholarship instituted by Amit Khanna, alumnus and founder of Phoenix Holdings, who has awarded 10 scholarships over the years supporting students who are the sole earning members in their families.

"Our alumni are the true 'owners' of the ISB and it is heartening to see an increasing number of them come forward in making world-class education accessible to deserving young students. We are thankful to Neeraj, Amit, and the others, as these scholarships will ensure that meritorious students will not miss a deserving opportunity due to financial constraints," said Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, ISB.

Titled the "Jagannath Arora Scholarship", Neeraj has instituted this scholarship to fulfill his father's aspiration to support talented and deserving young women professionals pursue a career of their choice.

Thanks to the increasing number of ISB alumni moving into the upper echelons of corporate management, with over 450 of them holding CXO titles, and 400 co-founders of start-ups, ISB is witnessing a steady increase in funding support from its alumni body.

As a result, the ISB alumni endowment fund has recorded a 300 per cent increase over the last three years and stands at Rs 11 crore as on date, it added.