On August 28, 2024, an online networking event was held for Indian alumni who completed the Panasonic Scholarship Asia program. Six individuals who were awarded the scholarship in 2018 and 2020 joined the event during their busy schedules, participating during their local lunchtime. It was the first time that a networking event was held with alumni from different award years. Here is a report on the interactions from that day.
The individuals who participated in this first-of-its-kind alumni networking event were Arvind Mehta and Parth Bhore from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore, Ganesh Jaiswal and Drashti Kher from IIT Varanasi, Harish Kumar from IIT Kanpur, and Lokesh Surana from IIT Hyderabad. Ms. Kher is one of the increasing number of female scholarship recipients. Joining from various parts of India, including Hyderabad and Bangalore, two cities with a thriving IT industry, the participants all shared their enthusiasm about the event.
“When a gathering like this is held, it’s great to get to learn about other colleagues. Today, I was delighted to discover that both Parth and I are from Aurangabad, Maharashtra (Central India),” said Mr. Surana with a smile. Mr. Mehta and Mr. Kumar, who are both from the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India, rekindled their old friendship based on their shared experience of being selected for the “Super 30 ” program (an educational program that selects 30 outstanding students) in the city of Jodhpur within the same state.
Mr. Mehta currently works as a back-end engineer at Capgemini, one of the largest consulting firms in Europe, while Mr. Bhore works in software development at the U.S. financial giant Goldman Sachs. Mr. Jaiswal worked for a year and a half at a U.S. company affiliated with the medical data platform Innovaccer and is now attending graduate school at IIT Kanpur, where he is studying hard to earn a master’s degree in space science.
Ms. Kher is a business analyst at Accordion, a financial and technology consulting firm based in New York, US; Mr. Kumar is an Executive Trainee at GAIL (India) Limited, India’s youngest Maharatna company and a leader in the natural gas business and Mr. Surana is an associate member of technical staff (AMTS) at a U.S. software giant CRM company.
There were many statements of gratitude expressed by the participants, including from Mr. Kumar, who said, “Thanks to Panasonic’s program, I was able to achieve my dream of graduating from IIT.” As they expressed their thanks, the participants were asked how they first came to learn about the Panasonic Scholarship Asia program. Many of them said they received information on the program from their former schools, seniors, and fellow students, but Mr. Surana recalled the following: “I came across Panasonic’s website while researching various scholarships online. What was interesting was that the site not only provided information about the scholarship but included a link to the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) site, making it very easy to access all the information. I thought it was a very unique and pleasant site—something that was not very common among other scholarship sites. It also had information on alumni of the program, including the names of those who went to IIT, which was the school I was aiming for, and that gave me an opportunity to contact them and listen to their stories. I received a lot of advice from them, which was very helpful.”
When asked about some differences between Panasonic’s program and other scholarships, Mr. Surana pointed out, “The process culminating in the awarding of the scholarship was very quick and smooth in accordance with the schedule.” Mr. Kumar added, “To receive the award, you first take a test, then proceed to an interview, and everything is completed in a few days. I felt like the steps leading to the award were well thought out, and the team involved in this was incredible.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Jaiswal noted the scholarship’s alumni as a distinctive feature: “A big difference compared to other scholarships is the strong alumni connections. As far as I know, other scholarships provide financial support but do not provide connections between colleagues who were awarded in the same year. In Panasonic’s case, scholarship recipients get along very well with each other because the company holds an award ceremony for them in the capital city of Delhi (the ceremony was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
I’m also glad we could hold an online networking event like this one.”
Mr. Mehta, who, like Mr. Jaiswal, was also awarded in 2018, mentioned that he became closer to the colleagues he met at the award ceremony after learning they were from similar backgrounds, such as their parents being farmers. The alumni have an official group on the social networking app WhatsApp, but Mr. Mehta and others said they’ve also created unofficial groups to connect with each other: “Connecting with other participants through WhatsApp provides them with stimulation and allows us to support them. A big advantage of the app is how easy it is to use,” he said.
Mr. Mehta and Mr. Jaiswal at the 2018 certification ceremony."
Other participants also noted that Panasonic’s scholarships, which cover living expenses as well as tuition, helped them focus on their studies: “The scholarship covered all my food expenses while I was studying at IIT,” said Ms. Kher. She then added, “Not having to worry about my living expenses allowed me to focus on what I really wanted to do.”
After broaching that topic, the participants were then asked what they knew of Panasonic and what were their impressions of the company before receiving the scholarship, to which Mr. Mehta said, “I knew them as a global company, but I didn’t know they had CSR programs like this scholarship.”
All the participants mentioned that applying for the scholarship gave them an opportunity to learn more about Panasonic’s CSR initiatives and changed their impressions of the company. “After receiving the scholarship, I was able to connect with senior executives at Panasonic India and learn more about the company’s various innovations,” said Mr. Bhore. Mr. Surana then said, “When I was a child, I used to play with toys that used Panasonic batteries. When I learned that the company was working on renewable energy, I was very impressed with how they were progressing toward the future.”
Until now, the participants of this networking event had only been connected with alumni from the same award year or colleagues and seniors from their alma mater. “Senior alumni know a lot more than we do, and their advice is valuable. So I want to know how I can connect with other alumni more broadly,” said Ms. Kher, who was awarded in 2020 but has had limited opportunities to network, particularly due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Bhore also expressed his hopes for the future development of the program, saying, “I hope we can have an annual online networking event where we can interact with alumni who were awarded in other years.”
(12th convocation - 13 July '24)
In response, the Panasonic Scholarship Asia Office in Japan promised, “Many of our alumni are working in important positions at companies and universities, and we plan to actively create opportunities to connect with them.” Mr. Surana and Mr. Bhore are considering launching a startup in the future. Also, networking events will help young alumni make significant progress in their pursuits.
Three representatives from the Panasonic Scholarship Asia Office in India also participated in the networking event, and it all went off with a lively atmosphere. There were some issues that could be attributed to the communication environment, such as temporary disruptions where the participating alumni were inaudible, but thanks to the support of the local office, all six participants were able to share many fruitful stories.
