To mark Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, British Indian academic and peer Lord Meghnad Desai on Wednesday announced the launched scholarships under his Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Trust.
Desai announced that the Trust, which aims to spread the message of Gandhi, will donate a sum of 100,000 pounds as an endowment towards a number of Mahatma Gandhi scholarships to be set up at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Mahatma Gandhi scholarships would go towards backing Indian students in their educational journey at the esteemed London-based UK educational institution, with which Desai has a long association as an economist.
“This is the seed money which would then be added to by others so that a large corpus would be built up in time,” Trustee Lady Kishwar Desai said in a statement.
“This would enable deserving Indian students to study at the LSE and has been welcomed by the Director of the LSE, Minouche Shafik, who is at present on a visit to India,” the statement noted.
According to Shafik, the scholarships are reflective of the London School of Economic’s very strong connection with India. Dr. B R Ambedkar, one of the architects of the Indian Constitution, is among its many Indian alumni.
In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi delivered a well-attended lecture at LSE in the Old Theatre of the university during his UK visit.
The Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust was set up in the memory of India Indian Independence Movement leader to raise funds. He is recognized with a statue at the Parliament Square, which was inaugurated in 2015 by then British Prime Minister David Cameron and the late Arun Jaitley, then Finance Minister of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well paid his respects at the statue in the heart of London during his visit to the UK in 2015.
Besides introducing the new scholarships, the Trust is commemorating the year 2019 as the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with a series of initiatives, details of which will be further unveiled over time.
