Endowment award instituted in memory of Aditya Awasthi

Aditya Kumar Awasthi, the father of Awanish Kumar Awasthi, was a 1949 batch alumnus of dept of metallurgical engineering at the institute

VARANASI : The Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, (IIT-BHU) announced instituting the “Aditya Kumar Awasthi Endowment Award” at an event held at Annie Besant Hall of the institute on Tuesday.

This award has been announced in the memory of the late Aditya Kumar Awasthi, a 1949 batch alumnus of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at IIT-BHU (then known as the college of mining and metallurgy of BHU), who passed away on May 10 this year. Awasthi’s three sons, including additional chief secretary (home), UP, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Manish Kumar Awasthi and Ashish Kumar Awasthi.

For this, a cheque of Rs 20 lakh was handed over to prof Pramod Kumar Jain, director, IIT-BHU, by Awanish Kumar Awasthi and his brother Ashish as corpus money. Rs 1 lakh per annum received from this fund will be given to the student who tops in the final year of BTech of metallurgical engineering department.

Speaking on the occasion, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said, “After the death of our father, we thought about this endowment award so that meritorious students could be encouraged.” To give another dimension to women empowerment, he (Awasthi) also announced that an award for girl students of metallurgical engineering at IIT-BHU will be started from next year.

Director, IIT-BHU, said, “I am thankful to Awanish Kumar Awasthi and his family members for starting the endowment award. The achievements of our alumni add to the glory and honour of the institute. Our alumni are the biggest assets of the institute.”

He also said nearly 16 alumni from different corners of the world were teaching various courses to the present students and sharing their experiences with them. On the occasion, UP minister of state (independent charge) Dr Neelkanth Tiwari thanked the Awasthi family for the initiative.

During the programme, Padma Shri Malini Awasthi shared memories of her fatherin-law. The late Aditya Kumar Awasthi’s wife Usha Awasthi was also present at the event. Chief priest of Sankatmochan Temple prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, who is also head of electrical engineering department at the institute, and several other professors also took part in the programme.