The journey towards SYLFF Fellowship…

The journey from getting to know about the SYLFF Programme and finally becoming 67th SYLFF Institute of the world was long and challenging.
What began as an exchange of information between Partho Som, an eminent Economist and Joyashree Roy, Professor of Economics at Jadavpur University, back in December 2000 has today turned into the SYLFF Scholarship programme for Jadavpur University with the formal awarding of the endowment by The Nippon Foundation on November 12, 2003.

Impressed by the flexible structure of the University and its proactive role Partho Som got in touch with Joyashree Roy and introduced her to SYLFF Fellow, Carlos Moreno to explore the possibility of initiating a dialogue between Jadavpur University and Tokyo Foundation for the SYLFF Programme. A meeting was arranged between the Vice Chancellor of the University and Partho Som accompanied by Carlos Moreno. And all this had happened in a very short notice of a few hours only. This was followed by continuous discussion on how Jadavpur University might apply for the SLYFF Award.

During the initial months Ex Sasakawa Fellow, Mr. Moreno provided valuable guidance to Jadavpur University regarding the approach it should take in order to interact with Tokyo Foundation and he also got in touch with Ms. Mashiko and informed them about Jadavpur University, when they were planning to come to India and visit a few university he was the one who suggested the name of Jadavpur University and also asked the university to get in touch with Ms. Mashiko directly.

In April 2001 the first step towards getting the scholarship began when on behalf of the University Joyashree Roy emailed Ellen Mashiko, Executive Director, Tokyo Foundation, informing her about

* how Jadavpur University came to know about the SYLFF Programme

* profile of the university was also sent to her

* and university’s eagerness to host the programmes of the Tokyo Foundation

Formal letter of Invitation to visit the University was sent through the Registrar’s Office to the Tokyo Foundation.

September 12, 2001
C Rajshekar, First Secretary, Embassy of India, Japan wrote to the
Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University, informing us about the following:

* That the Ambassador had met Mr. Sasakawa, President of The Nippon Foundation and that after a discussion Jadavpur University had been short listed.

* Delegates from the Nippon Foundation would be visiting Jadavpur University in November 2001

* They would like to meet Deans/Heads of Social Science departments and Humanities and try to understand institutional strategy and vision of the University with special focus on its international interests.

* They would also try to ascertain how the University could benefit from the endowment.

* They would like to make sure that the university would be able to receive the endowment and that there would be no tax deduction.

However due to the incidents that were taking place in Afghanistan and south Asia at that time they decided to postpone the visit to April 2002.

March 19, 2002
Letter from the Tokyo Foundation to Jadavpur University informing their proposed visit on April 26, 2002. The letter also attached write ups about the Tokyo Foundation and asked Jadavpur University to provide them with similar write-up, newsletters, bulletins that are published when they come to visit Jadavpur University.

April 26, 2002
Delegates from The Nippon Foundation visited Jadavpur University. The university adopted a unique strategy to make every faculty and component of the university visible to the delegates. Presentations were made by both the academic departments and the administrative departments
At 9:30 am the Vice Chancellor of Jadavpur University, Prof. A. N. Basu gave a presentation about the university. This was followed by a presentation by the delegates of Tokyo Foundation. The Pro Vice Chancellor Prof. A. R. Thakur explained the modus operandi for the SYLFF JU Programme. This was followed by presentation about the university Administrative structure by the Registrar, Mr. R. Bandyopadhyay and the Financial management by the Finance Officer, Mr. G. K. Pattanayak.

The delegates were shown around the Arts Faculty and the Central Library.
There was an afternoon session at the K. P. Basu Memorial Hall where the Dean, Prof. Biswajit Chatterjee narrated the structure of the Arts’ Faculty. The theme of research that the university would like to pursue under the SYLFF Programme was presented by Prof. Sukanta Chaudhuri and Prof. Joyashree Roy, while the students presented their current research themes and how the proposed programme could add value to their efforts and needs. This was followed by an informal interaction between the students and the delegates from the Nippon Foundation

May 7, 2002
Letter from Ms. Mashiko thanking the University for its warm Welcome and also letting us know that the visit was first sojourn to explore the feasibility of establishing SYLFF endowments to support research within the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences. They also pointed out that they would now compile a report and share it with the Nippon Foundation, the donor, who would then take the final decision.

July 24, 2002
The above letter was soon followed by another letter from them informing the University that the IAC (International Advisory Committee) had recommended that Jadavpur University be invited to submit an application for SYLFF endowment for further review.
In preparing the application, they asked the university to refer to their Guidelines for “The Nippon foundation overseas Grant”, and that it should also include a plan for a fellowship programme that:

* Is inter and / or multidisciplinary

* Focuses on a problem oriented theme and falls within the parameters of the social sciences and humanities

* Addresses social issues and ties academic studies to society

* Targets the highest level of degree seeking students.
The university was asked to send in all these by September 2002.

October 30 – November 2, 2002
Ellen Mashiko and Rieko Harue visited Jadavpur University to discuss the proposal for SYLFF endowment submitted by the university.

Executive council of Jadavpur University identified Prof. Joyashree Roy as the SYLFF Project Director, who was entrusted with the responsibility of steering the programme keeping in mind the SYLFF Goals.

Finally Jadavpur university received an endowment from The Nippon Foundation of 1 million US dollar.

But all the hurdles were yet to be overcome…

Discussions with the Financial Bodies regarding for permission to maintain and invest in dollar account within India

Initially the university had to register itself under the FCRA, as per the FC(R) Act of 1976

As per rules of the Indian Government an endowment could not earn interest and as per the rules of the Nippon Foundation the SYLFF Programme is to run on the interest earned form the endowment money. Jadavpur University wrote to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry of Finance (MF), Ministry of Human Affairs (MHA), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Chancellor of Jadavpur University and Governor of West Bengal, Higher Education Secretary of Government of West Bengal and the Indian embassy at Tokyo. After some negotiations, which occurred through mails, telephones and faxes, the RBI and the Indian Government chose to make an exception for the Scholarship received by Jadavpur University, given the fact that it was for educational purposes and would go into benefiting the student population. Jadavpur University was given a green signal to receive the money and retain the principal amount in US Dollars and run the scholarship programme from the money earned through interest.