50 of Pune’s brightest minds aboard the HT scholarship train
33,390 students entered the fray. Fifty were chosen as winners. The HT scholarships for 2019 were handed out to broaden horizons and change lives
The Hindustan Times Scholarship programme was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hall in Pune on Thursday. The scholarship programme, in its third edition since the launch of HT Pune in 2017, saw 50 winners from Clases 5 to 9, representing various schools from across the city.
The awards wew handed out for the Hindustan Times Scholarship Programme 2019, which received a total of 33,390 applications from from 106 schools.
Of these 150 applications were shortlisted.
The 50 winners, each of whom received ₹25,000, were picked after an extensive two-step selection process.
The awards, which seek to recognise the brightest talents in city schools, were presented by actor Shilpa Tulaskar, actor Pushkar Jog, and national-award winning director Sujay Dahake.
Rohit Pokhriyal, cluster head Pune and senior vice-president retail branch banking of HDFC Bank, and Abhay Vaidya, resident editor, Hindustan Times, Pune were the other guests present at the event.
“The HT scholarship programme is the only scholarship programme of its kind in Pune and every year the number of applicants has been increasing. We had more than 33,000 applications this year, of which we short listed 150. Then we called the students for interviews to our office after which the final results were declared,” Abhay Vaidya, resident editor, HT Pune, said of the selection process, during his speech to the auditorium packed with students; friends and family of the scholarship winners; and principals and teachers of participating schools.
“We had wonderful conversations with these students about their studies, hobbies, interests, school life and their dreams for themselves and country. This year our topic for the essay was, “How wonderfully rich our country is on the tourism front; and what can we do to attract more foreign tourists to our country?”, Vaidya said, adding, “Each one of you without exception said that we need to bring more cleanliness, make our tourist sites friendlier and also, to make our country a safer place for women to promote our tourist destinations abroad.”
HDFC’s Rohit Pokhriyal said, “Today you are reading the newspaper and tomorrow you are going to be the news. You students are the future of India. The Swach Bharat movement is to tell the world that our India is clean, come to see it. If your travel, then you are the most knowledgeable person. It is not only about bookish knowledge. You should travel and explore the world. For this travel you need to proper financial planning with a discipline in life.”