Bangalore: Bangalore based Societe Generale Global Solution Centre (SG GSC), a subsidiary of the France based Societe Generale Group, announced the third phase of their unique scholarship program — ‘SG GSC India Talent Scholarship’, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives to fund higher education for talented students with financial difficulties.

Launched in 2010, the SG GSC talent scholarship programme provided full scholarship to 28 deserving students from premier institutes in the past three years. The chosen students represent Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, (IIM A), Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli (IIM T) Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM B), Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM K), Indian School of Business, Hyderabad (ISB), and International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B).

In 2012′ the third successful year of ‘SG GSC India Talent Scholarship’ program, eight students were chosen for the prestigious scholarship after a rigorous screening process. The unique feature of the 2012 scholarship programme is that five out of the eight selected students are women. This is a testimony of SG GSC’s commitment towards supporting women leadership in the corporate world. The programme received around 200 applications from the top institutes in India. The screening involved each shortlisted student going through a face-to- face interview process with the top leadership team of SG GSC.

About SG GSC India Talent scholarship programme Xavier Lofficial, Chief Executive Officer of SG GSC said, “India is wealthy country in terms of its intellectual capital. At SG GSC we are glad to play a small but definitive role in harnessing and nurturing India’s future talent to take on tomorrow’s competitive world. In that sense this programme has successfully met its objective in supporting deserving students to chart out their future”.

Over and above the evaluation process involving factors like academic performance, need, impact and ambition of the students, the 2012 selection process had a major focus on the financial background of the students as well as their social entrepreneurial acumen.

Speaking about the impact of the programme, Professor Pankaj Chandra, Director, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, said, “We are proud to partner with Societe Generale GSC Talent Scholarship Programme, which enables selected PGP students to be assigned a mentor from the SG GSC team, besides receiving the funds to support their postgraduate education at IIM B. I am delighted that we are into the third year of this successful partnership. The feedback from students of previous years has been extremely positive especially with regard to the mentorship programme which provides the student a direct industry interface and helps develop executive capabilities.”

This programme stands apart with its unconditional objective of grooming future leaders and the focused mentorship program it offers for each student to get mentored by a member of the leadership tam of SG GSC. The mentorship enables the students to be coached and counselled by the leaders to steer through their course with great confidence and start their dream careers. The constant interaction with leaders enhances their communication skills, people skills and personal branding.

“A big “Thank You” to Societe Generale on behalf of that needy and deserving student of mine who was given FULL SCHOLARSHIP to refund his entire tuition fees plus the hostel and mess charges. What is more important is that it not only offers the scholarship but also mentors the selected student in his / her career aspirations by allotting a mentor from within the firm. This makes a complete package for the lucky student,” said Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri Director, IIM Tiruchirappalli.