(From left) Rajendran Sabanayagam, CMD, Sumangala Steel; N Ravi, Director, Kasturi & Sons Ltd ; V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras and Ashwin Sabanayagam, President, Sumangala Steel at the distribution of scholarship for students in Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
Bijoy Ghosh
“Villages are the symbol of India” and any goal of scaling education and upskilling the country’s population will require outreach to students in villages, according to V Kamakoti, Director Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Kamakoti was speaking to students who were selected for the Sumangala Scholarship, a CSR initiative by Chennai-based Sumangala Steel for meritorious students from construction worker families.
He suggested that for India to achieve its goal of expanding the higher education Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) to 50 per cent by 2035, it is critical that children in villages are empowered and urged students to interact and inform them about scholarships and other financial assistance.
“If each of you can do this for two students and those two reach out to another two each and so on, the multiplier effect can help us cover the entire country in no time,” he said.
The event also saw the presence of N Ravi, Director of Kasturi & Sons and The Hindu group who suggested that financing of education to be the most worthwhile form of CSR initiative.
“Enabling youth to pursue a course that may otherwise be beyond their reach, not only provides them a higher level of skills and equips them for higher level jobs, it also raises the overall skill levels in the country,” he said.
During the event, 20 students with household income less than ₹6 lakh per annum were awarded the Sumangala Scholarship. The initiative will cover education costs up to ₹1 lakh per year as well as provide students with free laptops.
50 Sumangala Scholars of the past three editions of Sumangala Scholarship were also facilitated at the event with the first batch expected to be graduating this year.
“This year is even more special as we hand over these scholarships to the 4th batch and therefore support students in all 4 years of their engineering education for the first time,” said Rajendran Sabanayagam, Chairman of Sumangala Steel.
Published on October 24, 2026