Delhi’s 9 Magsaysay Award Winners’ Education Life

With 2 people from Delhi sharing this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award, given in honor of former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, the number of people who got the award from the city has gone to 9. A sneak peek into their life reveals their education and upbringings.

• Anshul Gupta:

With just 67 garments that he and his wife had collected, Anshul Gupta started his NGO, Goonj in 1999. He himself saw people, dying due to the unavailability of clothes. He started doing recycling of clothes and currently Goonj is actively working in more than 21 states.
Gupta was the only one in his family of engineers who took the entrepreneurial route. He studied Hindi Journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication in 1991 and Ad and PR in 1992, and then went on to do a Masters in Economics. He later joined the corporate sector, but soon left the job to start Goonj.

• Sanjiv Chaturvedi

Sanjiv shared the honor with Anshul Gupta. Sanjiv Chaturvedi is a 1995 batch Electrical Engineer from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (NIT Allahabad) and a 2002 batch Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer from the Haryana cadre.
As an officer in Haryana, Chaturvedi was transferred 12 times. Currently, he is a deputy secretary of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He also served as a Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS during 2012-14.

• Arvind Kejriwal

The Chief Minister of India, Arvind Kejriwal was honored with Magsaysay award in 2006 for Emergent Leadership but after resigning from the IRS, he donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to found the Public Cause Research Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO).
Kejriwal is a Mechanical Engineering graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and worked for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as a Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department.

• James Michael Lyngdoh

Of Khasi origin, Lyngdoh hails from the northeastern state of Meghalaya. He did his schooling from St. Edmund's School, Shillong. Lyngdoh completed his education in Delhi, at St Stephen's College. Later Lyngdoh entered the IAS. He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 2003.

• M.C. Mehta

Mahesh Chandra Mehta was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Asia for Public Service in 1997.
He got his education up to primary level in his village Dhangri. Later, to get the higher education he had to join School at Rajouri. For few years, he travelled from his village to School and back by crossing two rivers and about 15 km. of distance every day. After, he moved to Jammu and completed his Post Graduation in Political Science and Law degree from Jammu University and started his practice in Jammu & Kashmir High Court. During his stay in Jammu, he took an active part in social and political issues.

• T.N. Seshan

T. N. Seshan won the Magsaysay award for government service in 1996. He completed his schooling from Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School and intermediate from Government Victoria College, Palakkad. He obtained his graduation from the Madras Christian College. He then went to study at Harvard University on Edward S. Mason Fellowship where he earned a master’s degree in public administration. Seshan joined Indian Administrative Service in 1955.

• Kiran Bedi

Bedi graduated in 1968, with a BA (Honours) in English, from Government College for Women at Amritsar. T In 1970, she obtained a Master's degree in political science from Panjab University, Chandigarh.
From 1970 to 1972, Bedi taught as a lecturer at Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar. She taught courses related to political science. Later, during her career in the Indian Police Service, she also earned a law degree at Delhi University in 1988 and a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi's Department of Social Sciences in 1993. he was the only woman in a batch of 80 men and became the first woman IPS officer. She bagged the award in 1994.

• Arun Shourie

He is a Journalist-turned-politician. He started writing for Indian Express during the time of emergency and became the editor.
He studied at Modern School, Barakhamba and St. Stephen's in Delhi. He obtained his doctorate in Economics from Syracuse University in the United States and worked for the World Bank from 1967 to 1978. He got Magsaysay in 1982.

• BG Verghese

Boobli George Verghese received the Ramon Magsaysay award for outstanding contribution to journalism. Verghese attended The Doon School. He then studied Economics at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and pursued a Master's degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. While at Doon, Verghese edited The Doon School Weekly.