PM Narendra Modi praises IIT-BHU alumnus for $1 million donation to boost academic activities

VARANASI: An alumnus of IIT (BHU), Jay Chaudhry, has caught the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for donating $1 million to his alma mater to create a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem at the institute.
In the latest episode of his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on Sunday, the PM made a mention of Chaudhry’s donation. Besides Chaudhry, several other alumni have also donated generously to their alma mater for various academic purposes.
“Jay Chaudhary, alumnus of BHU, donated one million dollars, i.e., about seven and a half crore rupees to IIT BHU Foundation. In our country there are many people belonging to different fields who are fulfilling their responsibility towards society by helping others. I am very happy that such efforts are being seen continuously in the field of higher education, especially in our different IITs,” said the PM in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
Chaudhry is the founder of cloud-based information security firm Zscaler. The donation will fund IIT (BHU)’s Entrepreneurship Center with a focus on student development, faculty development and entrepreneurship development. With his donation, a Software Innovation Center will be established which shall provide a platform where students will be able to learn and innovate in the areas of software development, quantum computing, cyber security, IoT and data analytics.
In the last five months, IIT(BHU) has received donations worth $4.3 (over Rs. 32.23 crore) from its alumni. In September 2021, the IIT(BHU) received a $1.3 million gift from its alumnus Ramesh Srinivasan to build a student activity center (sports) at the institute, while in November 2021 another alumnus, Nikesh Arora, endowed the IIT (BHU) Foundation with a US $2 million donation.
Before Chaudhry, Nikesh Arora, an IIT (BHU) graduate and CEO of cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks, endowed the IIT (BHU) Foundation with a $2 million donation in November 2021. The donation will seed the Foundation’s Access Fund, enabling scholarships for underserved students to attend the institute. Nikesh Arora graduated from IIT (BHU) in 1989 with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He joined Palo Alto Networks as chairman and CEO in June 2018. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh served as president and chief operating officer of SoftBank Group Corp.
In September 2021, Ramesh Srinivasan donated $1.3 million to build a student activity center (sports) at the institute. Ramesh Srinivasan, who graduated from IIT(BHU) in 1982, is the president & CEO of Agilysys. His donation will be used for setting up a Student Activity Center (SAC) for sports benefitting student and faculty of this all-residential campus.
Director of IIT(BHU), Prof. Pramod Kumar Jain expressed his gratitude to the alumni for the generous donations. “Last year we formed the IIT-BHU Foundation in the US with the support of five alumni. Now, the outcome of the effort is encouraging. We have so far received $4.3 millions in support from the alumni. We hope this foundation will work hard. It is not just money that we are targeting, but we are targeting their support also. So, in that direction we have launched the alumni visiting faculty programme, and we could invite 30 alumni to teach our students,” said Prof. Jain.