Bhubaneswar: Satya Sutar, a Singapore-based non-resident Odia has declared that he will donate Rs 1 lakh as scholarship to students who top the annual Matric examination under the Board of Secondary Education every year.
The scholarship is named after Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das, a legendary freedom fighter and philanthropist.
Speaking to the media on his decision to donate money to meritorious Odia medium students, Sutar, who hails from Keonjhar said that he had led a hard life as a boy and thus dreamt of making it big in life. Now that he has established himself as a leader at a multinational company in Singapore through hard work, he wanted to help students from humble backgrounds realise their dreams.
“I was educated in an Odia medium school and I feel that generally students who get admitted into vernacular medium are economically weaker than students of English medium schools under CBSE and ICSE curriculum. So I want to help students financially,” said Sutar.
“Odisha has given me so much in terms of opportunity and education. I am now in a position to give back so I would like to do so. I feel that there is no better cause than to support the higher education of a needy student,” he added.
A short inspiring film, ‘The Topper’ about an underprivileged child who commits suicide was released in the Red Cross auditorium at Bhubaneswar on the occasion.
“The movie aims to promote the scholarship introduced by Satya Sutar. It’s a short film and I am sure everybody will enjoy it, ” said Director of the film, Santanu Kumar Sia.
The movie has veteran Odia actor, Pradyumna Lenka