Awardees for India’s biggest prize in the Social sector felicitated with Rs 8 crores

-          SJ Foundation honours 20 outstanding Selfless Individuals & Organisations with S R Jindal Prizes  in 8 categories all related to social upliftment.

-        Sri Sri Ravishankar graced the occasion as Chief Guest and honored  20 Awardees

Dr. Vijay P Bhatkar & Bharat Lok Siksha Parishad receive Rs one crore each

New Delhi : SJ Foundation  honoured 20 Outstanding Selfless Workers, including  Dr.E Sreedharan, Late Satyendra Kumar Dubey and Subhash Chandra Agarwal by bestowing SR Jindal Prize 2012 at a glittering Felicitation Ceremony held in the Capital, today. Those honoured with total prize money worth Rs. 8 Crores included individuals and Institutions who are beacons of selfless service to the society.

 The S R Jindal Prizes 2012 were bestowed for the following eight categories: a) Agriculture, Rural Development & Poverty Alleviation; b) Healthcare – including drugless healing and Naturecare; c) Education – with emphasis on moral upliftment; d) Science, Technology and Environment; e) Peace, Social Harmony and Social Development; f) Crusade against Corruption; g) Exceptional Social Service and h) Exemplary Service to mankind in any field. One honorary Award was also given.The icon of non violence and universal human values Sri Sri Ravishankarji who seeks global peace through service and dialogue honoured the awardees. Mr. Justice R C Lahoti, former Chief Justice of India & Chairman of Jury presided over the ceremony where the winners were honored.

The S R Jindal Prize has been instituted last year to accolade exceptional service of current significance rendered by individuals or organisations for the welfare of Indian citizens in the country. It is expected that the recognition garnered by the S R Jindal Prize awardees will catalyze their efforts towards social upliftment.  Prizes of Rs. 1 Crore each were bestowed upon Dr. Vijay P Bhatkar for Science and Technology and Bharat Lok Shiksha Parishad in the field of Peace, Social Harmony and Socail Development.

Patron of SJ Foundation & CMD of Jindal Aluminum, Dr. Sitaram Jindal’s vision is “The most practical and meaningful way to give back to society, I feel, is to bring hope to the poor and downtrodden in distress.  I admire Albert Einstein for his belief “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”  It is imperative that the society acknowledges the contribution of selfless workers working silently and honours them with the amount of respect they deserve, so that others are inspired to take the cause ahead.  It is with this objective in view that the Foundation had decided to institute the “SR Jindal Prize”.

S R Jindal Prize (Honorary) was awarded to Dr. E Sreedharan for his exceptional contribution in the establishment and development of Delhi Metro.

Established in 1969, the S R Jindal Foundation is an apolitical, non religious and charitable trust, engaged in the field of education, health and social service with special emphasis on nature cure. The Foundation, besides extending financial support to other charitable institutions, has also directly set up several educational institutions and hospitals. The Foundation also assists the poor and deserving students through scholarships. More details about the foundation available at www.srjf.org.

S R Jindal Prize of Rs. 1 cr for Agriculture, Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation was bestowed jointly on BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune for empowering 45 lakh Tribal & Rural Families in 12 States and  Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS),Tirupati for benefiting over 10 lakh villagers in 3 states.

Dr. Sitaram Jindal has set aside Rs. 125 Crores to form a corpus of funds for creating a perpetual Prize, to honour the deserving, year after year. Such perpetual financial stability of Prize Schemes is uncommon except in rare cases like the Nobel Prize.

Aravind Eye Hospitals & The Banyan, Chennai have been jointly awarded SR Jindal Prize under the category of Health, including drugless healing and nature cure. Aravind Eye Hospitals provide quality eye care to 27 lakh patients every year and The Banyan, Chennai works for Treatment and rehabilitation of mentally ill homeless women. This Award carries a Cash Prize of Rs. 1 Crore to be shared equally.

SR Jindal Prize, under the category of Education - with emphasis on moral upliftment has been bestowed jointly upon Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari and SOS Children’s Villages of India.  Vivekananda   Kendra, Kanyakumari is engaged in educational service running 63 schools with about 22,000 students maintaining high academic and moral standards in six states in India. SOS Children’s Villages of India provides free education and health care to 6135 destitute children in family environment and care. This Award carries a Cash Prize of Rs. 1 Crore to be shared equally.

Bhagwan Mahaveer Vikalang Sahayata Samiti which has been providing over 20000 artificial limbs per year to the disabled and Narain Seva Sansthan,Udaipur which provides free treatment and rehabilitation to polio affected persons, have been awarded SR Jindal Prize of Rs. 1 cr to be shared equally under the category of Exceptional Social Service.

S R Jindal Prize for Crusade against Corruption of Rs. 1 cr to be shared equally was given jointly to (Late) Satyendra Kumar Dubey, the Whistle blower who sacrificed his life for exposing corruption in NHAI, Shri Sanjeeb Singh Katiyar, Alias Sanjeeba for exposing and fighting corruption through NUKKAD NATAKS,   Shri Subhash Chandra Agrawal  for exposing corruption through RTI Act and  Shri Ajay Shankar Dubey for exposing corruption in mining lease cases and MGNREGS in M.P.

Smt. Fulbasan Yadav, Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Shri.T.Duryodhana Reddy, Mr. Dipendra Manocha, and Amar Sewa Sangam have been jointly awarded SR Jindal Prize in the category of ‘Exemplary Service to Mankind in any field’. The Award carries a Cash Prize of Rs. 1 Crore to be shared equally.

S R Jindal Prize had attracted close to 2700 nominations this year, mirroring the exceptional response for the Prize. The nominations were invited from across India through advertisements in print and electronic media as well as the website of SJ Foundation. The nominations received were adjudicated by the Jury comprising eminent persons of high integrity through a process independent of the working of the Foundation. These Prizes will be awarded every year, year after year.

This year the Jury constituted of eminent personalities like Hon’ble Mr. Justice R.C. Lahoti, Former Chief Justice of India as the Chairman, Mr. Justice Ajit Prakash Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court as Vice Chairman, Mr. V. K. Shunglu, former C&AG of India, Mr. Dhanendra Kumar, Ex-Secretary, Ministry of Culture in the Government of India, Dr. Ved Pratap Vaidik, Eminent Journalist, Mr. Naseem Ahmad, Ex- Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University as members and Mr. N.P. Gupta, IAS (Retd) and Secretary General, SJ Foundation as member secretary.

More Details of the Awardees are available at :  www.sjfprize.org