IDFC FIRST Bank has announced its MBA Scholarship programme for the batch of 2020-2022, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). As its flagship CSR programme, the scholarship will be available to the MBA aspirants across the country. The initiative aims to financially support students from weaker social economic backgrounds, helping them to pursue a management degree from a B-school of their choice.
In a bid to qualify the process of getting the scholarship, the candidate is required to secure admission into a two-year full-time MBA programme and the family income has to be less than Rs. 6 lakhs per annum. The initiative offers financial assistance to students for easing the pressure of paying the fees and help in the admission of the economically weaker students into the best colleges and universities. About 150 scholarships will be granted by the Bank this year.
Rachana Iyer, Head, Corporate Social Responsibility, IDFC FIRST Bank said, “We believe expenses of MBA are rather high and even meritorious students often drop out from pursuing their careers because of financial difficulties. Through this initiative, we aim to lend a shoulder with Rs. 2 lakh per student for two years, to students from vulnerable communities, to pursue higher education and to attain a higher standard of living.”
The scholarship offers support to students from more than 150 B-Schools all across India. Since the number of applications far exceed the number of scholarships, the Bank prioritises the process and ranks-orders the applications for scholarships based on criticality of the need of the student, which may involve factors namely family income, socio-economic background and other such criteria.
The MBA Scholarship programme was instituted as a CSR initiative by erstwhile Capital First in 2016 and continued after the merger which resulted in the formation of IDFC FIRST Bank. So far, 530 students from both urban and rural India have benefitted from this programme. These students belong to diverse family backgrounds with parents being retired lower-income scale government employees, auto-rickshaw drivers, farmers and other such backgrounds.
Varun Ganatra, a recipient of the scholarship for 2019-21 batch, studying at TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal, said, “I started selling SIM cards at age of 16 to support my family. I worked part-time and tutored students on weekends to fund my graduation expenses. My father, now retired, sold our property to offset business losses. Due to our financial condition, I was not eligible for an educational loan. IDFC FIRST Bank’s MBA scholarship helped me access funds needed for higher education. I am today a proud ambassador of this scholarship.”
The application for scholarship can be accessed on https://www.idfcfirstbank.com/csr-new/mba-scholarship.html. The last date for applying for this scholarship is July 31, 2020.
