Mumbai, February 20, 2021: Vodafone Idea Foundation – the CSR arm of Vi, has invited applications from Teachers and Students for the ‘Learning with Vodafone Idea Scholarship’ programme for the year 2021-22.

The Vi CSR initiative aims to bridge the social and fiscal divide that teachers and students face in terms of availability and accessibility to the necessary resources to help them excel.

Launched in 2020 these scholarships entitle teachers as well as students to access Direct Beneficiary Transfer (DBT) covering a list of permissible expenses. The scholarships are merit based for teachers and merit-cum-means based for the students. The selection process is entirely online, overseen by an independent jury, including eminent educators, representatives of civil society organizations.

Vodafone Idea Foundation is offering Rs. 1 Lakh cash Scholarship to Teachers and Rs. 20,000 to Students to help them avail necessary resources for quality education.

Launching the Scholarship this year, P. Balaji, Chief Regulatory & Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited said “Vi is committed to leverage our technology expertise and network to create social impact. Providing access to education is one of the fundamental ways of improving employability, thereby reducing poverty in the country. We strongly believe that no student or teacher should be held back from achieving their true potential due to financial constraints.”

Eligibility Criteria:

Full time teachers from government/government-aided schools or low income private schools with 3+ years of experience can apply for the scholarship. They must be teaching standards 8 and above and possess credentials in the form of recognized academic awards, papers, teaching-learning innovations and content creation, to be eligible. Students from government/government-aided schools from 6^th to 12^th class with recognized academic or extra-curricular achievements can apply for the Vi CSR Scholarship. Scholarship winners can use the money to procure IT equipment (laptop, printer) and pay for course fees, educational books, magazines, school tuition fees, amongst other school related essentials. To know more and to apply, please visit: www.learningwithvodafoneidea.in/vi-scholarships

Shmruti Prashant Patro, a student scholarship winner from Maharashtra said, “This year we could not go to the school and suddenly we were told to study from home. Our teacher was taking classes on mobile phones, but my parents could not provide me a phone and I had to borrow it sometimes from neighbours which was causing delay and many times I had to miss my class since the phone was not available. On receiving the Vodafone Idea Students’ Scholarship, one of the first things I purchased was a mobile phone, which I am now using to attend all classes and also use the internet as the teacher tells us. My school fee for the last few month was also pending, which I have paid using the scholarship.”

Vodafone Idea’s CSR has transformative programmes in the domain of Education, Agriculture, Women Empowerment and Technology.