On the Annual Alumni Meet, IIT Kharagpur awarded the first ever Learn-Earn-Return Fellowship to three of the first year students. The fellowship was started by Prof P P Chakrabarti, Director of IIT Kharagpur , in July 2016 with the crowd-sourced funding gathered from the alumni.
Jyoti Agrawal, Rathin Singha and Jyotisman Das of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering were the recipients of the fellowship. Every student will get Rs. 10,000 per month for the 4-year duration of the course as a cash award.
The fellowship is awarded at the end of the first semester on the basis of JEE Advanced rank . In order to retain the scholarship, the students will have to maintain a (Cumulative Grade Point Average) 9 if further semesters.
The fellowships were given out on the Annual Alumni Meet on January 13, 2018. The event was attended by more than 300 alumni who came from India and abroad. Close to 120 alumni have donated funds for this fellowship since it was launched.
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Prof Chakrabarti talked about the fellowship and said that the concept of Learn-Earn-Return (LER) Fellowship is to provide financial support to a student and enable him/her with the idea of extending the same support as an alumnus towards future generations of students who will enroll at IIT Kharagpur . This will create a circle of LER Alumni, the Director added.
Jyotisman Das, one of the recipients of the fellowship, said that LER enables students to meet academic and research expenses. He added that he has pledged to give this gracious amount back to his Alma Mater as his career grows.
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Rathin Singha, another LER recipient, said that the fellowship will enable him to pursue his dreams without fussing about the financial burden. Jyoti Agrawal, the third LER recipient, said that it was an honour to receive the fellowship in front of the alumni and it will encourage the girls in the country to pursue careers in engineering. IIT Kharagpur recently concluded its annual cultural event Spring Fest 2018 .