A million dollar gift to students

NOVEMBER 18: SANJAY Kumar, president and chief operating officer of Computer Associates, today announced a donation of $ 1 million (Rs 4.35 crore rupees) to help needy students and underpriveleged children in India. Half the amount will go towards tuition waivers for undergraduate engineering students in five different colleges and the other half will be distributed between 10 NGOs working for the underprivileged.pKumar (37) who emigrated to the United States from Sri Lanka with his family at 14 hoped the grant would shame other corporates into making similar donations. “I am hoping I can be a catalyst and others will follow,” he said at a press conference. The donation is being made by the Sanjay Kumar India Foundation. Computer Associates (CA) will contribute part of the donation.

The four colleges are: VJTI, Bombay, where the fund will give the equivalent of an annual tuition waiver to all 1,600 undergraduate students; BMS, Bangalore, where the fund will give the equivalent of an annual tuition waiverto 1,000 students based on their financial means; BITS, Pilani, where the fund will give the equivalent of a semester’s tuition waiver to all computer science and information science students; and Jadavpur University Engineering College, Calcutta, where the fund will give an equivalent of an annual tuiton waiver to all 3210 students enrolled in undergraduate engineering degree courses for all years.

The ten NGOs are: Salam Balak Trust, AAROHI, Raphael Ryder Cheshire International Centre, Servants of the Peoples Society (Delhi branch), Centre for Concern for Child Labour, Pan Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation, Society for Rehabilitation and Research of the Handicapped, Helpage India, KATHA, and Ruchika Social Service Wing. On whether the donation would be made on a continuous basis, Kumar said he was still keeping an open mind. “I don’t want to put an expectation but I’m hoping others will follow my example.” About the criteria for selection of colleges, he said most colleges said they could onlyaccept grants for the institute and not for students. The final selection was made after drawing a list of colleges who accepted donations for students, he said.

Earlier, addressing a gathering of CEOs at a luncheon organised by the Indian Express group and Miller Freeman, Kumar said businesses had a moral and social obligation to pay back to society. CA chairman and CEO Charles Wang has also made a similar donation to China.