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

By Ashritha D Souza
Pics by Jayakar Samartha
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 2 Sep 2013: Nearly 596 engineering and 28 MBBS students were awarded with scholarships worth Rs 2.5 crore from the Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund (VKSSF), established by World Konkani Center (WKC), at a programme held at T V Raman Pai Hall here on Monday September 2.

The state higher education and tourism minister R V Deshpande inaugurated the programme and awarded scholarships to students here on Monday morning.

MLA J R Lobo, Manipal Global Education chairman T V Mohandas Pai, VKSSF chairman Ramadas Kamat U, WKC president Basti Vaman Shenoy, Annappa Kamath were present at  the dais.

 

Speaking on the occasion, the 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,’ said minister Deshpande.
The minister Deshpande, further said, ‘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,’ said minister Deshpande.

‘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 stae government is giving importance to innovation, autonomy to colleges, evolving the concept of community colleges and so on,’ said minister Deshpande.

‘The union government spends about Rs 2,50,000 crore on education and one cannot expect everything from the government. These kinds of scholarship programmes are doing their job in helping the students," said minister Deshpande.  He lauded yeomen service of the organizers of the scholarship programme. He also advised students to help others once they succeed in life.

Speaking on the occasion, 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, WKCr is doing a noble work in uplifting the community through education,’ said MLA Lobo.

‘The Indian population comprises 48 percent 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, added MLA Lobo.

MLA Lobo further said that the district has mainly grown because of the importance given to education by people of earlier 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,’ said Mohandas.

‘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, emphasized Mohandas.
‘No child should be deprived of higher education as children are the future of our society,’ said Mohandas minister Deshpande, and urged him for concerted efforts in this regard.

Mohandas advised the students, 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,’ added Mohandas.

‘There is not much economic activity taking place in Mangalore, therefore, it is essential to create an active plan on how to create jobs and in this direction we need people to market Mangalore. The government has been spending crore of rupees on distributing rice at subsidized rates, instead it should concentrate on creating jobs which is the need of the hour,’ added Mohandas.

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,’ said Shenoy.

Ramdas 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 5 scholarships under this category,’ said Ramdas.

‘Along with awarding scholarships, we also conduct training programmes for students, added Ramdas.
On behalf of the scholarship recipients, Lenita Menezes and Raghavendra Bhandarkar expressed gratitude and shared their experiences.

WKC secretary Venkatesh N Baliga compered the programme.  Gurudut Bantwalkar proposed the vote of thanks.