Lila Poonawalla Foundation (LPF) is an Educational Trust in India whose vision is to contribute to the empowerment of Indian women by supporting academically outstanding and financially deserving girls, through Scholarship to pursue higher education. It is the 16th year of the Foundation. Since its inception, the foundation has supported 581 women professionals to do their Post-graduation abroad
and in India in various specialized studies. In the 15th year the Foundation introduced scholarships for undergraduate studies for any engineering stream, with the goal to support these girls for four years to complete their course in any chosen engineering stream. Prominent educationists from Pune form the highly motivated team of trustees of the foundation, which is a registered charitable trust (September 9, 1995). The students are gifted with an outright grant of up to a lakh of rupees, to pursue post graduation studies depending on the financial needs of the person over a period of two years and up to two lakhs of rupees for undergraduate course in engineering over a period of four years. Undergraduate program for engineering was started last year, being the 15th year of the Foundation. Girls with outstanding academic records but economically needy are selected. Last year we received almost 500 applications for various scholarships but were able to accord scholarships to only 98 girls, due to limitations of funds. From inception until now LPF has already given over 785 scholarships, supporting 581 young ladies (554 for post graduation and 27 for engineering) in the last fifteen years. LPF awards scholarships in varied subjects ranging from Computer Engineering, Medical, Engineering, Pharmacy, Mass Communication, Business Management, Finance, Performing Arts, Technological Studies, Public Relation, Humanities, Education, Fashion Designing, Architecture, Law, Psychology, Commerce, Medical, Hotel Management, Travel Tourism & Aviation, Wildlife Biology and Conservation, Environmental Science, Agriculture, Food Safety & Technology and Family & Child Welfare etc. Since 1996, the LPF Scholarship Awards function is celebrated with a feeling of satisfaction every year at the end of July. The ceremony is not a mere formality, but a meeting ground for the Lila Fellows, past, present and future, and a forum for the girls to share their experiences. The awardees become part of the LPF family for life. For the last fifteen years, eminent Personalities from different fields have been invited as chief guests from 1996 to 2010, and their words of wisdom have further encouraged the girls:
Kiran Bedi (super cop and Magsasay Award winner), Shabana Azmi (celebrated film actress and five-time National award-winner for Best Actress), Shobha De (well-known writer/journalist), Dr Reena Ramchandran, (Chairperson and Managing Director, Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd.), Dr. Mallika Sarabhai (Director, Darpana Academy for Performing Arts), Padmashree Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Chairperson & Managing Director, Biocon India Ltd.). Amrita Patel (Chairperson, National Dairy Development Board), Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Vice Chairperson & Managing Director, HSBC Securities & Capital Markets and Dr. (Ms) Indira Parikh, Dean, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, once again Dr. Kiran Bedi who had promised to be with us if we completed a decade, Ms. Geetanjali Kirloskar (Chairperson, India – Japan Initiative), Ms. Vinita Bali (Managing Director of Britannia Industries Ltd.), Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam , Former CSIR Director Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar and & 15th year of Award Function we invited Chief Guest Dr. Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India & Guest of Honor Professor Göran Grosskopf Chairman, IKEA International.
