Scholarships Distributed since 1999
This Trust was established and funded in April 1999 by its Founder Dr. Thampil Pankaj, under the Charitable TRUST ACT OF KERALA. Remembering his own childhood experience of poverty and resulting hardships, and aware of the great value of some assistance he received to further his own education, Dr. Pankaj set up this Educational and Charity Trust mainly to help poor, meritorious students to pursue their higher education. He believes that there are too many bright talented young children who are unable to receive a higher education because of their family's poor financial background. With some financial assistance for their studies, they can do better in life and also serve the overall society much better. Through this Trust and its scholarship program, he hopes to help at least some of these children to get the opportunity for higher education.
The Trust was formally inaugurated in August 1999, in a special function held in the Maharaja's College, Ernakulam, (Dr. Pankaj's Alma Mater), when scholarships were awarded to the first batch of students. Prof. M K Sanu was the Chief Guest and speaker; other distinguished guest speakers where: D Ramachandran Potty, M K Das, A V Rajan, K P Chandrasekharan Nair, and Prof. N Parvati Manoranjini, Principal, Maharaja's College. Some office bearers of the Trust and some students receiving the scholarships also spoke during the function.
The Trust aims at giving financial assistance through scholarships, without any religious/caste discrimination, to bright students who are financially poor. Dr. Pankaj initially (1999) contributed Rs. 15,00,000 to form this Trust, and later increased it to Rs. 32 lakhs. Currently, annual expenditure for scholarships exceeds Rs. 4 lakhs, more than 70% of which is met from the interest earnings from the founder’s endowments. Happily, more recently, other donors from Mr. Pankaj's larger family and some close friends have contributed to the scholarship funds ( for capital or annual expenses), thus enabling the Trust to offer more scholarships. The Trust also does some other charity work on a small scale.
Donations made to the Trust are eligible for the Tax benefit to the donors, under clause 80G of the Income-tax Act, 1961, of the Govt. of India, subject to the limits and conditions prescribed therein.