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November 22, 2007 18:39 IST
In recognition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's achievements as an economist, his Cambridge alma mater St John's said on Thursday it would launch a scholarship in his name in New Delhi next week to spot and develop potential Indian leaders in the fields of economics, science and technology and social sciences.
A spokesman of the university said the privately-funded Manmohan Singh Scholarship will send three serving scholars from India every year to St John's College, Cambridge, where the prime minister had studied economics and won the Wright's Prize for distinguished performance in the mid-1950s.
"There has always been an important tradition at Cambridge University of identifying, developing and nurturing leaders," Stephen Teal, Development Director of St John's, told PTI on Thursday.
"There have been leaders such as India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and of course, Manmohan Singh. We want to continue that tradition in the areas of science and technology, economics and social sciences."
The scholarships, sponsored by Tatas, British Petroleum and Rolls Royce, will initially fund three PhD places beginning January 2008, but seek to take the number up to at least four by 2009. The closing date for the first year's applications is the end of January 2008.
The prime minister as well as St John's Master, Prof Christopher Dobson, will attend the launch in New Delhi on November 27, Teal said. Prof Dobson held a high-level meeting in the University on Thursday.
"This scheme has been named after one of our most notable alumni -- and we are very proud of our association with Dr Singh and of what he has done for India," Teal said.
The scholarship idea came jointly from an ex-student and an ex-master of St John's. Both wanted to help bright young Indians who could not otherwise afford to study at Cambridge.
India-born student Abhijit Banerjee, CEO of Immediance, the world's first online stock exchange for shares in private companies, and former master Richard Perham wrote jointly to Singh in 2004 suggesting a scholarship in his name. The proposal was developed during a meeting of St John's alumni over dinner at the Prime Minister's residence last year.
Subsequently, Singh visited Cambridge in autumn last year to receive an Honorary Doctorate. There he spoke fondly of his years at St John's and of the 'inclusive character' of Cambridge, which had welcomed both Nehru, who had an exclusive schooling at Harrow, as well as him.
"Before the First World War, a young man from Allahabad came up to Trinity via Harrow. After the Second World War, a simple young Indian came to St John's from an obscure University in Punjab. Cambridge University embraced both," he had said in a moving speech on 'inclusive globalisation'.
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