The Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation was established by Indoo Shivdasani in 1976 as a permanent platform for his philanthropic activities. The Foundation focuses on providing scholarships, grants and awards in any field to outstanding young Indians to develop their professional, scientific, artistic and cultural abilities. It prides itself on being open to a wide range of subjects, many of which are not covered by other fund-giving bodies. Over the last three decades, more than 400 scholars have benefited from overseas scholarships while another 200 have received awards in India as well as Take-Off Grants. The list of Inlaks alumni reflects the diversity of scholars that the Foundation has supported. Today many are leaders in their chosen fields the world over.
Our scholars include several significant figures in India, such as Vir Sanghvi, Barkha Dutt and Vikram Chandra in the field of Journalism, Rajiv Kumar, Jayati Ghosh and Omkar Goswami in Economics, Sumit Guha and Mukul Kesavan in History, Rukun Advani and Amitav Ghosh in English Literature, Gita Luthra and Pinky Anand from Law and several others. In the arts, we have painters and sculptors such as Jagannath Panda, Rekha Rodwittiya, N N Rimzon, Gigi Scaria, Vasudevan Akkitam, Manisha Parekh, Sonia Khurana, Sheela Gowda, Shaina Anand, Sakshi Gupta and Chinmoy Pramanick among several others who have significantly contributed to the fabric of Indian art. While some of these artists have been recipients of the Inlaks scholarships to universities abroad for graduate degrees in the fine arts, others have been recipients of the Inlaks Fine Arts Awards that aid them to commence their artistic projects within India. The Foundation has had collaboration with the Royal College of Art and Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto for many years. This year it will support artists at residencies at Gasworks, Darling Foundry, Montreal, Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto and Rijksakademie, Amsterdam.