Alumnus Institutes Scholarship for Women Students at ISB

Neeraj Arora, Vice President at WhatsApp and Indian Business School (ISB) alumnus, has instituted a perpetual merit-cum-need based scholarship at ISB for a deserving woman student of its flagship Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP).

The first recipient of the scholarship is Salini Tiwari, a dental surgeon from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, who has done a commendable job in improving the healthcare facilities and support to the inhabitants of the islands.

Salini has been serving in the community and district hospitals in rural areas of north and middle of Andaman raising awareness for oral diseases in surrounding villages in the islands. She has also devised a computerised system of record collection and data storage which is extensively used in these institutes.

This is the second such scholarship from an individual ISB alumnus. The first was the Phoenix Nurture India scholarship instituted by Amit Khanna, alumnus, and Founder, Phoenix Holdings, who has awarded ten scholarships over the years supporting students who are the sole earning members in their families.

Making the announcement on April 18, ISB Dean Rajendra Srivastava, said,” Our alumni are the true ‘owners’ of the ISB and it is heartening to see an increasing number of them come forward in making world-class education accessible to deserving young students.

“We are thankful to Neeraj, Amit, and the others, as these scholarships will ensure that meritorious students will not miss a deserving opportunity due to financial constraints,” he added.

“My alma mater holds a special place in my life — not only did I learn a lot, I also became part of a network that I have relied on and benefited from, over the years. So to make the school even stronger, I would like to give back and will continue to do so in the coming years,”

“Every such contribution will allow us to attract the best of talent and nurture them for the future. We are proud of our alumni for their efforts in bringing about change that will make a meaningful impact on the industry and the larger society,” Srivastava said.

Titled the “Jagannath Arora Scholarship”, Neeraj has instituted this scholarship to fulfil his father’s aspiration to support talented and deserving young women professionals pursue a career of their choice.

Speaking about the scholarship and his association with ISB, he said, ‘‘ISB was the place that gave me the basics of how to build a company. It also opened up opportunities for me to look at functions that I had no direct experience in before I went to study there.

“My alma mater holds a special place in my life — not only did I learn a lot, I also became part of a network that I have relied on and benefited from, over the years. So to make the school even stronger, I would like to give back and will continue to do so in the coming years,” he added.

With increasing number of ISB alumni moving into the upper echelons of corporate management, ISB is witnessing a steady increase in funding support from its alumni body.

More than 450 of the alumni are holding CXO titles and 400 are co-founders of start-ups.

The ISB alumni endowment fund has recorded a 300 % increase over the last three years and stands at Rs. 11 crores as on date.

In addition, every graduating class leaves behind a gift for the School ranging from support for infrastructure to scholarships for the future generations, among others.

ISB alumni also contribute in different ways from admissions to placements, research, and projects and most importantly play an active role in supporting the School’s growth trajectory.

Today, ISB has a very strong alumni base of approximately 8,500 spread across 41 countries and a wide spectrum of sectors such as management consulting, technology, finance, real estate, media, manufacturing, IT, telecom, automobile, energy, and healthcare.

The network is increasing at over 1,000 per year, which will make it the strongest management network across the world, the school claims.