The Indian School of Business (ISB) alumnus and WhatsApp vice-president Neeraj Arora has instituted a perpetual merit-cum-need based scholarship for a deserving woman student of the school’s flagship postgraduate programme in management.
Announcing this on Tuesday, ISB said Salini Tiwari, a dental surgeon from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, is the first recipient of the scholarship. Apart from serving in the community and district hospitals in rural areas of north and middle Andaman, she has also devised a computerised system of record collection and data storage extensively used in these institutes.
A release from the ISB said the Jagannath Arora Scholarship has been instituted by Mr. Arora to fulfil his father’s aspiration of supporting talented and deserving young women professionals to pursue a career of their choice.
“My alma mater holds a special place in my life, not only did I learn a lot [but] also became part of a network that I have relied on and benefited. So to make the school even stronger, I would like to give back and continue to do so,” the WhatsApp vice-president said. It is the second such scholarship from an individual ISB alumnus. The first was the Phoenix Nurture India Scholarship instituted by Amit Khanna, founder of Phoenix Holdings, who has awarded ten scholarships so far supporting students who are sole earning members in their families. ISB dean Rajendra Srivastava said such scholarships ensured that meritorious students would not miss a deserving opportunity due to financial constraints. The release said the ISB was witnessing a steady increase in funding support from its alumni body. The ISB alumni endowment fund has recorded a 300% increase over the last three years and stood at ₹11 crore.
