(December 16, 2022)
Dec,16 2022: Deutsche Bank and Smile Foundation have collaborated with the aim to provide engineering scholarships to 200 meritorious young women from low-income families across India. The students will receive funding for a four-year engineering course at select colleges in Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Pune.
The bank, in conjunction with its NGO partner, formally handed over the scholarship letters and laptops at individual events across Deutsche Bank offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and Jaipur. Other than senior management of the bank, also present at the event were parents of the girls and their college principals.
According to an official release, the scholarship programme has been structured to provide students the holistic support required, right from inception until the completion of their course. Under the collaboration, the bank will conduct half-yearly training programmes to upskill the girls. Post the completion of their course, the students will also be given industry experience, support, and guidance for job placements, the release added.
Furthermore, the release said almost 1,100 applications from aspirants studying in over 50 colleges, across the four centres, were received for the scholarship. The process of conducting orientation sessions and selecting the young recipients for the scholarship, was undertaken by more than 150 volunteers from the bank and the foundation, the release mentioned.
“As a country with a burgeoning female workforce, there is an urgent need to ensure equitable distribution of economic resources and to provide equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic, and public life. As a bank, we believe in supporting initiatives that would create a larger talent pool that would help support our vision towards nation building. Our scholarship will help develop a generation of women technocrats and build gender collaboration to sustain a buoyant and thriving economy,” Kaushik Shaparia, CEO, Deutsche Bank Group, India, said.
Smile Foundation’s efforts are in line with the government’s agenda of educating the girl child and creating a gender-balanced leadership, Vikram Singh Verma, executive director, said.