New Delhi, Aug 6, 2024: Kotak Education Foundation (KEF), the CSR implementing agency of Kotak Mahindra Group, has announced 500 scholarships under the Kotak Kanya Scholarship programme, doubling the numbers of scholars as it enters the 4th year, to support higher education of meritorious girls from economically disadvantaged section across India.
The scholarship program aims to empower the girl students by providing them with financial support of Rs 1,50,000 per year, across 4-5, enabling them to pursue their higher education without financial constraints. Besides financial assistance, the scholarship facilitates holistic development of the scholars through intensive student engagement and finishing school activities. The response and outcomes from the Kotak Kanya Scholarship in the first three years were inspiring and 525 meritorious girls are supported through this venture across 24 states of India, and 122 top ranked Institution.
Jayasree Ramesh, Executive Committee Member (EC) & Director of Education Programme and Scholarship, Kotak Education Foundation said, "The Kotak Kanya Scholarship Program is a bespoke initiative designed to uncover and cultivate the unique potential of each scholar. We are committed to fostering their holistic development, extending beyond academic excellence to nurture their distinct talents and leadership attributes. Our scholars, empowered as change-makers, become beacons of hope not only for their families but also for the future of India, embodying the promise of a brighter tomorrow."
KEF’s scholarship wing has been supporting students for over a decade, providing scholarship and financial assistance to over 3600 scholars till date. Over 800 alumni are successful white-collar professionals working in leading companies and other esteemed institutions.
The scholarship has a holistic approach towards nurturing the scholars beyond financial aid making them ready for the professional world. It provide scholars with intensive student engagement support such as mentoring sessions, life skill and mental well-being sessions in collaboration with reputed finishing school organizations to make them future ready. The expert mentoring session by industry expert from the particular domain helps the scholars to get a glimpse of the real-world professional landscape.
The scholarship project has grown 950% in a span of 3 years from 50 students in 2021 to 525 in 2023. Kotak Kanya Scholarship has representation from all top ranked NIRF colleges in engineering, MBBS, law, architecture and design. Almost 86 % of the scholars are from STEM fields and 40% of the students from IITs have scored within 10,000 All India rank in JEE advance. KEF has collaborated with organizations like Talerang, Plaksha University for imparting the best finishing school certified training to the scholars. KK Scholars have got the opportunity to work as interns with Google, Jaguar Land Rover India Limited, Goldman Sachs, NLC Neyveli, BARC, GKN Aerospace, Dr Reddy’s Lab, University of Oulu Finland etc. while our legal students have won several moot court competitions across India.
Kotak Kanya Scholarship is open for meritorious girls across India. Applicants must have scored 75% or more marks or equivalent CGPA in class 12 board examinations. Applicant's annual family income must be below Rs 6,00,000. Meritorious girls who have secured admission to the first year of graduation programs in the academic year-2024 from institutes of repute (NIRF/NAAC accredited) for professional graduation degrees like Engineering, MBBS, Integrated LLB (5 Years) or other professional courses (Design, Architecture, BSC Nursing, Research, etc).
KEF launched Kotak Kanya Scholarship in 2021 to offer financial and academic support to meritorious girl students for the pursuit of higher education from all across India. Kotak Junior Scholarship supports meritorious students from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region for pursuing 11th and 12th Standard. KEF’s Unnati project upskills unemployed youth from economically weaker sections of society and coaches them in the basics of IT and spoken English, life skills and personality development. It ensures placements for all eligible participants so they can stride with confidence into any professional sphere.
