From the Desk of the Chief Executive, The Paul Foundation

As the application process gets underway with the release of our advertisement inviting potential scholars, at The Paul Foundation, there is a sense of great anticipation. As we wait for the applications to arrive from the best and the brightest minds in the country, we are aware that it will renew the relationship that The Paul Foundation has painstakingly built with the academic community in India, of which students with aspirations and determination and drive and intellectual commitment are the most significant part. We look forward to receiving applications for the student community across the country.

The Paul Foundation stands for recognising and rewarding intellectual excellence. Over the years, we have been privileged to receive from the student community in India hundreds of applications in a diversity of subjects and specialisations within the broad categorisation of subjects. Since our means are not unlimited, we have had to undertake the very difficult task of selecting from among the hundreds of applicants the best.

I would like to share with you the success of scholars who have been supported by The Paul Foundation. We take great pride in their achievement and we respect them for the decisions that they have made. Of the more than 50 scholars who have received support from The Paul Foundation, some are completing the courses and others have completed their courses and moved on. We do make an effort to stay in touch with all of them. When some of them write and inform us that they have achieved success in their lives, we feel a great sense of satisfaction, because our commitment is to help young scholars fulfil their aspirations. By my estimate, it does seem that of those who have completed their courses/programmes, a gratifying number, have fulfilled our hope that they would undertake assignments that would enrich the communities in which they had been nurtured, academically, passing on, at one remove, the experience they had obtained as students. It does appear that at least one fourth of The Paul Foundation scholars are continuing to work in areas that interested them when they applied for the scholarships.

In 2007, I was personally delighted to learn that our Prarthana Purakayastha, a scholar from 2003, has completed her Ph.D in Dance Studies from the University of Surrey in UK and has taken up a two-year teaching assignment at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. Prarthana wrote: “I do hope that the Paul Foundation is pleased with this decision, as it is the first time that a South Asian lecturer has been appointed by the University for its dance department to promote intercultural collaboration and research in the performing arts.” We not only approve of her decision, but applaud her achievement.

Another scholar from 2003, Harsankar Adhikari, who struggled heroically to arrive on the threshold of fulfilling his ambitions, is on the verge of completing a Ph.D in Social Work from Visva Bharati University. His work brought him in touch with the children of sex workers and he is committed to not only his academic career, but to promoting education among this deeply discriminated community.

Yet another scholar, Bosanta Boaruah, a scholar from 2004, has completed his Ph.D in Photonics from Imperial College, London and has returned to take up his assignment at Gauhati University's Department of Physics. He wrote: “In the near future I would like to improve the research infrastructure of my university in my related field. I am planning to form an active research group that can serve the research related needs in the
relevant area for the North Eastern region of India. I would like to collaborate with the other research institutes in India and utilise my expertise that I had developed over the last 3 years in UK.” Bosanta's commitment to enrich the academic community to which he now belongs exemplifies one of the aims of The Paul Foundation.

Bosanta has made a further observation regarding The Paul Foundation that strongly articulates his commitment: “One important criteria for selection should be the strong willingness on the part of the candidate to contribute towards overall development of the nation.”

The Paul Foundation is committed to rigorously evaluating every valid application that it receives. In its effort to select the best, it depends on a large pool of teachers and scholars and researchers who spend time and undertake the evaluation with keen interest and close attention. Our evaluators have specialisations in the areas in which applications are received. We make every effort to search out specialists, so that the evaluations do justice to the applications we receive.

The three-stage evaluation, therefore, takes time. While the final date for submission of completed applications has been fixed for February 15, 2008, we will be able to invite the sort-listed candidates for interview only after May, 2008. Once the interviews are over and the Selection Committee has made its recommendations, the Board of Governors will decide the final awards.

Our commitment is to intellectual endeavour through which India can participate in and contribute to the building of a knowledge society. We believe that by supporting academic aspirations of our youth we will fulfil our commitment to nurturing talent and excellence, especially among those who engage in thought-provoking and thoughtful intellectual labour. We hope that our efforts will help in building the thought leaders of tomorrow who will join the global community and contribute to enriching the knowledge society of the future.

We appeal to all potential applicants to carefully read through the requirements and procedures for submitting completed applications. Every year there are some who fail to comprehend that The Paul Foundation will accept an application from a student aspiring to go overseas before the applicant has received a confirmed admission from the university of her/his choice. Therefore, The Paul Foundation accepts a printout of an on-line application/a photocopy of a hardcopy as evidence of the applicant's intention to go overseas for further study.

Wishing all applicants all the very best.

Yours sincerely,

Shikha Mukerjee