Having studied free, alumnus donates $200,000 to Punjab varsity

Having completed his studies in pharmaceutical sciences with funding from Panjab University (PU) way back in 1969, an alumnus of the university on Wednesday announced a donation of $200,000 to the institution.

"PU alumnus and founder CEO of Sun Deep Cosmetics Inc., US, Jaswant Singh (Jay) Gill today (Wednesday) announced to donate $200,000 (approximately Rs.1.3 crore) endowment to the PU for setting up a corpus fund for the benefit of needy and meritorious students of the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS)," a university spokesman said here.

The scholarship and fellowship would be awarded to 13 UIPS students out of the annual interest accrued on the endowment, the spokesman said.

Gill, who visited the university on Wednesday, met top university officials, including Registrar G.S. Chadha, Dean Alumni Anil Monga and UIPS chairperson B.S. Bhoop.

Hailing from Villa Teja village in Gurdaspur district, Gill took admission in the university in 1964 on assured scholarship basis.

He bagged the gold medal in the Bachelor of Pharmacy course at UIPS in 1967 and completed his Masters in Pharmacy in 1969.

Gill moved to the US in March 1972 and served the pharmaceutical industry and profession for next 15 years before establishing his own entrepreneurial venture, Sun Deep Cosmetics Inc. in California.

"I got free education and scholarship at PU and I am only trying to pay back. The university scholarship changed my life and in order to change the lives of students now, I want to help the needy students with this initiative of encouraging poor meritorious students to study pharmacy at UIPS," Gill said.

"The university gave me free education and scholarship, which has been instrumental in taking me to present echelon," Gill said.