Waquar Hasan 

NEW DELHI – A Lucknow-based NGO, Aaghaz Foundation, has announced scholarships for undergraduate journalism students. The Kamal Khan Memorial Scholarship is named after the renowned journalist, Kamal Khan, who died recently. It has been instituted with a view to carry forward Khan’s legacy of journalism of high standard.

The Kamal Khan Memorial Scholarship amount is Rs 50,000 to be awarded to two deserving students, Rs. 25,000 each annually. The candidates for the scholarships will be selected on the basis of their academic merit and financial impediment.

Briefing about the scholarship, Mazhar Farooqui, president of the Foundation, said, “The scholarship aims to honour and cherish the legacy of NDTV resident editor Kamal Khan who raised the bar on television journalism during his illustrious career that spanned over more than two decades.”

Khan passed away on 14 January this year due to a heart attack.

As regards the purpose of the scholarship, Mazhar Farooqui said, “It (the scholarship) will help young journalism aspirants who can’t afford the fees for the course with their limited financial resources. Besides, it will inspire the budding journalists to follow in the footsteps of Kamal Khan.”

Last year, Farooqui’s foundation awarded a memorial scholarship to two journalism students in the name of Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui.

The Foundation was launched in 2004 by a group of likeminded friends in Lucknow with just one student and Rs 1,500. It is now a “massive educational movement that has impacted nearly 25,000 lives across India,” he said.

“Every month, Aaghaz pays the school/college fees of hundreds of students on the verge of dropping out. Without this intervention many of these children would be otherwise forced to discontinue their education”.

The Foundation also runs around 40 memorial scholarships and a coaching and guidance centre in Lucknow.

“Journalism is said to be literature in a hurry. And Kamal Khan of NDTV proved the dictum to the hilt. He died young, but immortalised his profession leaving behind a legacy that should inspire young aspirants but is hard to emulate,” reads a poster inviting applications for the newly instituted scholarship.

It also talks about the awards like the Ramnath Goenka Award and the Ganesh Shanker Viyarthi Award Khan had received for his works in the field of journalism.

As far as Kamal Khan scholarship is concerned, the students whose parents have an annual income of Rs 3,50,000 or less can send in their applications online at SCHOLARSHIPS.AAGHAZ@GMAIL.COM with Kamal Khan in the subject line and a 200-word introduction about himself/herself and Why The Scholarship Should be Awarded to Him/Her. The last date for the submission of the applications is March 10, 2022.