One of the things that has always made Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham stand out is its dedication to compassion-driven research and development aimed at helping the poor, the sick and the needy. This is something our Chancellor Amma has insisted upon, since the university’s inception. Moreover, it has always been Amma’s concern that the initiatives undertaken by the university and ashram should be sustainable. Thus, the majority of these projects — be they in the fields of clean water, village-outreach, toilet-construction, healthcare or education — involve the beneficiaries themselves being active participants in the solutions to the various problems they face. It is with this goal in mind that Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham inaugurated the “Amrita School for Sustainable Development”.
The new school was inaugurated by Sr. Rajnath Singh, Honourable Minister of Defence, Government of India in the prescence of Amma.
The various programmes offered by this school will focus on seven thematic areas in line with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The school’s undergraduate-, master’s- and Ph.D.-level programmes will utilise the unique framework E4LIFE to dynamically integrate social, economic and cultural aspects of sustainable development, thus enabling students to Experience, Embrace, Empower and Engage with communities through Experiential learning.
E4LIFE International Ph.D. Fellowships
To date, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math has adopted more than 100 villages all over India. Under Chancellor Amma’s direction, faculty and students at Amrita have been striving to help these villages by creating tailor-made solutions that foster sustainable development and social-economic progress. It is Amma’s belief that such programmes help not only the villagers, but also the students — awakening compassion in their hearts.
Sri. Anurag Singh Thakur, Honourable Minister of State of Finance & Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India launched the ELife program by presenting the scholarship to first 10 students enrolled.
A total of 100 Amrita E4LIFE International PhD Fellowships are now being made available. Students from all over the world who are interested are encouraged to apply. Every fellowship for a PhD in Sustainable Development is worth up to Rs 25 lakhs over a period of four years and will contribute towards the development and implementation of a sustainable solution in the community in one of the thematic areas.
The grand total grant for this programme is Rs 25 Crores ($3.5 million USD)!
The following students were given the scholarships in the inaugural event
- Therese Capet from France
- Sreevidhya C.
- Aswathy Suresh Babu
- Meera Nair M.
- Bal Mukund Singh
- Krishna Sreesuthan
- Reshma A.S.
- Divya P
- Nibi K.V.
- Vineeth Ajith
For more details visit https://www.amrita.edu/program/ph-d-sustainable-development
