Agarwal is not only remembered as a media baron and a visionary who nurtured the Dainik Bhaskar Group to reach its pinnacle; but also as an inspiring personality who believed and lived by his principle of giving back to the society. To take his values forward and as a small tribute to his tremendous efforts towards the uplift of society through education, gender equality and women empowerment, the MCM Scholarship is being established with a vision of promoting students who are meritorious, but lack means to provide for their higher education which is relatively expensive in India.

For this initiative, Dainik Bhaskar Group and Ramesh & Sharda Agarwal Foundation will invest Rs 50-million over a period of 10 years, besides envision such scholarship programmes with many other educational institutions too, going forward.

For the MCM Scholarship at IIM Ahmedabad, four students will be selected each year through a holistic selection approach based on merit and means, for up to 50% scholarship on tuition fee towards a 2-year course in MBA / MBA-FAMB stream. The shortlisting will be based on 50% weightage given to a student’s academic merit while the balance 50% weightage to the family’s annual income of below Rs 15 lakh. In each batch, 1/4th of the scholarship recipients will be reserved for female students.

A five-member committee comprising of 2 representatives from DBCL, two from IIM-A and one outside expert, will interview the candidates for awarding the scholarship. The scholarship will be initiated in January 2020 for the academic batch of 2019-21 and is planned to continue for the next 10 years.

Sudhir Agarwal, managing director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, said “Shri Ramesh Chandra Agarwal, our chairman and my beloved father was a great visionary and a person of values who touched many lives with his simple being and high thinking. He was known to be easily approachable and was fondly referred to as, ‘Bhaisahab’ by people around him. As we celebrate his 75th birth anniversary, I feel deeply honoured to be a part of his legacy and on behalf of the entire Dainik Bhaskar family, through the MCM Scholarship, I would like to pay a lasting tribute to his philosophy of giving back to society and empowering the lesser privileged. His simplicity, modesty, ability to connect with people and the zeal towards business growth and betterment of the society will continue to inspire us in all our future endeavours.”