Kalinganagar: The third edition of ‘Arunima’, a three-day programme by Tata Steel kicked off at Sukinda Bhavan in Kalinganagar today. Underscoring Tata Steel’s commitment to its communities, Arunima will cover a set of three different programmes aimed to bring together the students, youth, women and farmers.
On Day I, a total of 782 Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe students from Kalinganagar, Bamnipal and Sukinda were awarded Tata Steel Jyoti Fellowships. Of them, 353 students were from Kalinganagar, 203 from Bamnipal and 226 from Sukinda. Mr Krushna Chandra Nayak, District Education Officer, Jajpur, joined as Chief Guest on the occasion and awarded the fellowships to students.
Tata Steel offers Jyoti Fellowship as part of its Affirmative Action policy to meritorious students from economically backward Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe families and enables them to accomplish educational and career aspirations. Tata Steel’s Tribal Cultural Society (TCS) identifies deserving candidates from operational areas of the company on a merit-based test process.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ambika Prasad Nanda, Head, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR, Odisha, Tata Steel), said: “Jyoti Fellowship provides us an opportunity to inspire students to complete their higher studies and become successful in life. Our effort is to bring social change through education. I urge all students who are present here to not only aspire for a successful career but also to become good citizens of the country.”
The cash amount of the fellowship was Rs 3,750 (Class VIII), Rs 4,500 (Class IX), Rs 4,500 (Class X), Rs 8,500 (Intermediate), Rs 8,500 (Undergraduate), Rs 10,000 (Diploma) and Rs 25,000 (B. Tech, MBBS etc). Certificates of merit were also given to students till Class X on the occasion. Along with cash awards, the 16 top performers from Kalinganagar, Sukinda and Bamnipal in the merit test at the school and college level got computer tablets containing NCERT study material of Class VII-XII. The total amount disbursed under the fellowship today was Rs 50.36 lakh among all the students. In the past five years, a total of 4,195 fellowships worth Rs 2.5 crore have been distributed to students belonging to Kalinganagar, Sukinda and Bamnipal.
As part of this three-day long event, ‘Dhwani – A Youth Conclave’ will be held on Day II (January 24) and ‘Vaartaa – An Agriculture Meet’ on Day III (January 25). The theme for Arunima this year is “Save Water”, a theme selected based on a strong felt need to focus on water in the ecosystem and also inspired by the United Nations mission of declaring 2018-19 as the Water Decade.
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