Alumni pledge over 1 crore to IIMB
Bangalore: IIM Bangalore has received pledges of Rs. 1.35 Crores from two batches of alumni who are celebrating their reunions on campus during December 2018.
The PGP 2003 batch of IIMB celebrated their 15th-year reunion at the IIMB campus, recently. The batch pledged Rs. One Crore towards funding scholarships, research and infrastructure. The batch has already contributed Rs 60 lakh, and the rest would be raised in another one month. The batch was keen on naming a discussion room 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.”
Professor G Raghuram, Director, IIMB, said: “IIMB has been at the fore front of management research in India and I am happy to say that we are producing many Fellows every year who join other IIMs as faculty and continue to contribute to cutting edge research. I am glad that alumni are recognizing the efforts of IIMB in this 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 thereby generating tremendous goodwill and contributing to the growth of the institute.”
Prof. K Kumar, Dean of Alumni Relations and Development, IIMB, said: “We consider our alumni to be our assets and ambassadors and we are constantly exploring new ways of engaging with alumni across the world. The trend of alumni giving back to the alma mater has seen a rise in the last few years and this is largely on account of a vibrant and engaged alumni network.”
Likewise, the batch of PGP 2008 celebrated their 10th-year reunion at the IIMB campus, also in early December. More than 100 alumni, from various parts of the world, attended the reunion, along with their families. This batch has endowed Rs 35 lakh towards providing financial assistance to the children of staff working on the campus. The higher education scholarship would 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 itself. 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 Deepa N Swamy, the batch representative, who is the cofounder of FlexiBees, and lives in Singapore.