The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) declared the year 2020 as the ‘Year of Women’s Empowerment’ and has announced to launch an initiative – Shakti for the women so that they can make an impact, lead and advance. The launch event of Shakti will take place on 4th February 2020 from 10 AM to 2:30 PM at Hotel Ashoka, New Delhi.
The prominent university will launch the initiative with the theme of ‘accelerating the gender equality journey: Empowering women from classroom to boardroom.’ The objective of the event is to bring together the stakeholders from the government, academia and industry so that they can in a real sense, become change-makers.
Lack of availability of resources such as those of finances has proved to be a significant hindrance for girls in pursuing higher education. With an initiative to accelerate the gender equality journey and empower women from classroom to boardroom, Shakti will offer a 25 per cent scholarship for all female students in the year 2020.
This scholarship by the university will be for the entire duration for all the female students applying for all the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the said year. Apart from providing scholarship, the scholarship will also help them in developing and refining their personal as well as professional skill sets through providing them with a holistic atmosphere of growth.
Commenting on the initiative, Vice-Chancellor, UPES, Dr Deependra Kumar Jha, said, “Education across levels is the best form of empowerment that can be extended to women to positively impact the state of their being, their status and position in personal and professional settings. With the year 2020 being the ‘Year of Women’s Empowerment’ for us at UPES, the scholarships are a step towards promoting diversity and inclusion and encourage girls to pursue higher education. We are positive that it will contribute to the on-going efforts by organisations across the globe to have a greater number of women in boardrooms and leadership roles.”
Sharad Mehta, Chairman of Hydrocarbons Education and Research Society, will going to deliver the welcome address. Apart from the launch of Shakti, the event will also showcase the women-centric CSR initiatives by the university.