Bengaluru: IIMB alumni raise Rs 1.35 crore for welfare of institute, staff
Bengaluru: Paying back to their alma mater, two batches of former students of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) have pledged over Rs 1.35 crore to fund scholarships, research and infrastructure.
Celebrating their 15th anniversary since graduation, the Batch of 2013 pledged Rs 1crore towards the initiative. The batch has already contributed Rs 60 lakh, and the rest will be raised in another one month, alumni members said. A discussion room at the Institute was named after Debarshi Roy Choudhury, one of their batchmates who passed away last year.
Sarin Saures, an alumnus from the batch, said, “Thousands of students who walked through the campus doors have benefited immensely from the education and faculty guidance they received at IIMB and carry fond memories of times on campus. Our batch is eager to support areas that the institute thinks is important and to causes that contribute to long term value creation.”
The batch of PGP 2008 celebrated their 10th-year reunion on the IIMB campus also in early December. More than 100 alumni from various parts of the world attended the reunion along with their families. The batch has endowed Rs 35 lakh towards providing financial assistance to the children of staff working on the campus. The higher education scholarship will help fund up to a maximum of Rs 50,000 every year towards high school and college education, subject to the student maintaining a minimum academic performance.
“We are very excited to be launching the ‘Class of 2008 Higher Education and Welfare Fund’ in collaboration with our Institute, that will provide scholarships to children of staff at IIMB, an initiative proposed by our batch. We are happy to have used our 10th-year reunion as the anchor for this giveback initiative. The Institute has a professional team managing the giving process, that makes the entire process simple and easy to execute,” said Ms Deepa N. Swamy, the batch representative, who is the cofounder of FlexiBees, and lives in Singapore.
IIMB Director Prof. G. Raghuram said, “I am glad that alumni are recognising the efforts of IIMB in its space and are coming forward to support our commitment to producing world class research scholars. Alumni are coming forward to support so many other causes, generating tremendous goodwill and contributing to the growth of the institute.”
Dean of Alumni Relations and Development at the Institute Prof. K. Kumar said that the trend of alumni giving back to the alma mater has seen a rise in the last few years.
“This is largely on account of a vibrant and engaged alumni network.”
