New Delhi:   Panasonic, the Global Technology leader, today felicitated students from IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and PEC University of Technology, by

offering scholarship to study in the prestigious Universities of Japan as a part of Panasonic Scholarship Program 2011. This program offers financial assistance to promising students who have the potential to contribute to the development of India and to promote mutual friendship between India and Japan. Mr. Kazuhiro Kawano, President of Panasonic Scholarship Co. Ltd, Japan, Mr. Hidenori Asou, Managing Director, Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd, and Mr. R.C Meena – Economic Advisor to the Ministry of HRM awarded the scholarship to Arpan Bajoria of IIT Kanpur, Sumit Kumar Srivastav of IIT Delhi and Kabir Arora of PEC Chandigarh at a felicitation ceremony at ABW Towers, LifeScape, Gurgaon. Mr Shinichi Tamura, First secretary, Embassy of Japan; Dr. Ajay Dua, Advisor to the Panasonic Global Board graced the occasion with their presence.

 The Panasonic Scholarship Program was established in 1998 in commemoration of the company’s 80th anniversary as a way for the company to express its appreciation to society. Its aim is to provide scholarship opportunities to privately financed students from Asian countries who wish to pursue a master’s course in Japan, to offer financial assistance to foster highly educated experts who can contribute to the development of their countries in the 21st century, and to promote mutual friendship between the home countries and Japan.

 Panasonic will be felicitating the Indian students for the third consecutive year. In the first year of its inception, in 2009, the scholarship program

sponsored one engineering student in 2009 and two students in the year 2010 to pursue their Masters Course studies in Japan

 Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kazuhiro Kawano, President of Panasonic Scholarship Co. Ltd, said, “It gives me immense pleasure to interact with the upcoming talent of the country and experience the zest that drives them towards achievement. The scholarship is our effort to express our appreciation to the society and contribute in a sustained manner.”

 Congratulating the selected students Mr. Hidenori Asou, Managing Director, Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd said, “Panasonic has taken a step to partner societies across Asian countries to provide an opportunity to the privileged students to advance their talent and skill sets by providing them an opportunity to pursue higher studies in Japan.  We believe that talent is our country’s future and would play a vital role in the growth of economy and in the development of society. We had a motivating response from the students this year. We are confident of promoting the best talent of this year to go to best universities of Japan for further studies.”

 Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd has shortlisted the candidates with the help of an exhaustive selection process from IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, University of Pune,

NIT Warangal, PEC University of Technology. There were over 60 applicants who participated in the program. The students were selected on the basis of their academic results GPA, GMAT, TOEFL and extracurricular performance. The short-listed candidates were interviewed by experts from Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd., Panasonic Scholarship Co., Professor from IIT Delhi and First secretary, Embassy of Japan Application forms are accepted and selected by the overseas offices of Panasonic Scholarship under the initiatives at the 8 applicable countries /region: China, Indonesia, Malaysia,

 Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and India. The students selected for the scholarship programme will be entitled for a scholarship package from April 2011. As part of the program, Panasonic shall support with 150,000 yen per month and tuition fee for the first year and for the subsequent two years, it will increase to 180,000 yen per month besides the tuition fee.