One-year-old ANU is in search for 100 young, passionate, socially-committed practitioners and students Fellows as a part of its Fellowship's founding year (2017-18). The fellows will be given an annual scholarship of Rs 7 lakh to fund for their tuition and living expenses.
"We are very excited about this one-year post-graduate fellowship programme. There are no structured programmes around sustainability in India. Most lament that this area is still unexplored. The idea is to demonstrate the impact of this fellowship programme over the year. The programme is multidisciplinary that trains fellows to understand environmental science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, communication and every other aspect to solve a practical problem," said Dr Pramath Sinha, Provost ANU, Founding Dean of Indian School of Business (ISB), Founder and Trustee of Ashoka University.
With the belief that solutions to the vast and complicated challenges in the Built Environment can be solved by practitioners from a variety of disciplines working together, this Fellowship invites entrepreneurial students from all professional and educational backgrounds to apply, with preference to those from the disciplines of architecture, design, and planning; engineering branches like civil, and construction; and other fields of study such as environmental sciences.
Commenting on the selection procedure Dr Pramath Sinha said, "Although the process is quite normal where students and professionals can apply online, the selection process is stringent. We are looking for people who have a desire to do something significant for the environment and Indian society. Historical conservation, creating healthy food access, community gardens, mental health, transportation systems are some of the areas they will work on. Therefore, we have tied up with Municipal Corporations and Gram Panchayats to emphasise on grass root projects. Gandhi Fellowship being one of the most respected fellowship programmes is helping us source the projects for this fellowship programme."
Elaborating further on the kind of live projects and faculties, Ajay Piramal, President - ANU, Chairman, Piramal Group and Shriram Group said, "Students will be grouped in five to undertake live projects. These live projects will be about solving basic issues such as sewage, garbage, environmental, traffic etc. within 100 kilometres of the university. In the recent times, although urban migration has largely increased, planning and development of these towns have not advanced proportionally. A team of world-class faculty will be guiding the fellows."
Industry practitioners on the board include Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Quality Council of India, Chairman, Network18, Former Chairman, McKinsey & Co., India; Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director, Lodha Group; A.M. Naik, Group Executive Chairman, Larsen & Toubro Ltd; Nathu R. Puri, Founder, Purico Group; Pankaj Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Zydus Cadila; S. S. Rathore, Chairman and Managing Director, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam, former Principal Secretary, (Roads and Building), Government of Gujarat, and S. Gurumurthy, noted Chartered Accountant, and Editor, Tughlak. Educators on ANU's board include the likes of Indira Parikh, former Founder President, FLAME University, former Dean, IIM-A; Akshai Aggarwal, Former Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technical University, Dr. Sudhir Jain, Director, IIT Gandhinagar; Michel Danino, an expert on Indian civilization instrumental in setting up Archaeological Sciences Centre at IIT Gandhinagar; Yunus Bilakhia, Founder, Maa Foundation, a grassroots education organisation; and Dr R.K. Shah, Chairman, Laxman Gyanpith Trust.
Applications are open for Anant Fellowship Program. For more details, visit: fellowship.anu.edu.in