Celebrating the legacy of Trust partner Mr Sonna Belliappa

Following the passing of Trust partner Mr Sonna Belliappa, we celebrate his legacy and the lasting impact of the scholarship he made possible on its recipients and across India.

Established in 2010, the Pemanda Monappa Cambridge Scholarship has enabled 14 talented scholars to undertake Master’s degrees in a range of subjects at the University of Cambridge, including Law, Mathematics and English Studies, as well as Bioscience Enterprise, Engineering for Sustainable Development, and Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence.

Named in memory of his father, Pemanda Monappa – a highly decorated officer of the Indian Police – the decision to create the fund was inspired in large part by Jawaharlal Nehru, the 1^st Prime Minister of India, who graduated from Cambridge in 1910 with a degree in Natural Sciences. The scholarship is offered to Master’s students with a close connection to Southern Indian states.

Many of our scholarship recipients have described the moment they received a letter offering them a scholarship as one in which their whole lives changed.

And what always made this scholarship particularly special was the way Mr Belliappa was so actively engaged; not only generously giving the funds to make it possible, but visiting Cambridge on several occasions to encourage and support the students. He also organised a prestigious event in India each year to present the scholarship to each new recipient.

Over the years, the scholarship recipients have commented on just how important this connection has been, enhancing the reputation of the scholarship and opening up new networks for them.

For the University – which has longstanding ties with India stretching back 150 years – these students have brought new perspectives and a broader international context to their study partners and research groups; one element in helping Cambridge to keep its perspective truly global.

The students also make valuable contributions to their home countries and regions.

Scholarship winners often return to their original universities as the academics of the future. But even if they don’t return, they retain strong links with their alma mater which can lead to other benefits such as international collaborative research, thereby bringing long-term benefits to their country.

Again and again, we see the significant impact they make in their respective fields.

Just one example is the first Pemanda Monappa Scholar, Prashanth Venkatarama, who was presented his award in 2010 by the then UK Minister of State for Universities and Science, the Rt. Hon. Lord David Willetts during a ceremony in Chennai.

On successful completion of his Master’s degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development, Prashanth returned to India and with a former classmate founded a social enterprise, Essmart Global, which came up with an innovative solution to one of India’s development challenges – helping the rural poor easily access basics such as clean drinking water, electricity and other life enhancing equipment.

The most pressing challenges we face today are global in nature, transcending geographic and cultural boundaries. Cambridge recognises this and places international partnerships at the centre of its research and teaching. Helping the next generation of students to achieve a global perspective in their work is one of the most important drivers for the Cambridge Trust.

We are grateful that Mr Belliappa was a committed partner and friend to the Trust, and proud of our work together in enabling talented Indian students to pursue degrees at Cambridge. We offer our sincerest condolences to his family and know he will be very much missed.

His legacy lives on through the scholarship, which will continue to be offered through the Trust. Please visit the Pemanda Monappa Scholarship page to find out more.