The Sir Ratan Tata Trust, was set up in 1919 after the after the untimely demise of Sir Ratan Tata at the age of 47. Today it is one of the oldest philanthropic institutions in India, and has played a pioneering role in changing the traditional ideas of charity and introducing the concept of philanthropy.

The Trust supports efforts in the development of society, through institutional grants in areas of Rural Livelihoods & Communities, Education, Enhancing Civil Society & Governance, Health and Arts & Culture. Besides institutional grants, the Trust also makes individual grants for education and medical relief.

The Trust has, since its inception disbursed approximately Rs. 3346 million (US $ 79.66 million) to various institutions in the above mentioned themes, besides individuals.

On the individual front, the Trust offers a range of education grants to students in India, to help them pursue their goals without worrying about the finance to back them up. These scholarships cover a range of courses - including Pharmacy, Architecture, Hotel Management, and Law…

To know more about these scholarships and the application procedure for the year 2007-2008, please visit the Sir Ratan Tata Trust website here.

The 9th World Zoroastrian Congress’ “Youth Leadership Enhancement Program” is a new initiative which aims at encouraging community leadership among 23 to 35 years old. The program is being launched to gear up for presentation at the 9th World Zoroastrian Congress to be held in Dubai in 2009.

The objective of launching this program is to build a network of enthusiastic young individuals and create a sustainable pool of next generation leaders that will benefit the community in the long run.

The youth will be mentored by eminent industrialists/entrepreneurs and receive valuable inputs/advice from them. They will be encouraged to support several community causes. What’s important is that the youth will have an opportunity to explore and experience the qualities of collaboration, entrepreneurship, leadership, creativity and community rooted ness.

If you are a Zarathusti (Zoroastrian) between 23 and 35 years of age, you will find this a great opportunity to not only do something great for the community and its future, but also develop your own thinking and leadership skills as well!

To know more about the entry details and submission, please click on the images of the official program announcement above.

One of the fastest growing social networking sites in the world - Facebook - now has a new group called Parsi Youth. This group is created by a member of the Delhi Parsi Association and is meant to provide Parsi youth from all over the world with a common private forum to come together and get to know each other.

Facebook allows members to set up their own home pages giving details of themselves, their education, work, whatever… All this information remains private, and visible only to those who you allow by ‘confirming as friends’. This is quite different from other popular social networking sites.

The founder of this group hopes Parsi youth will use this forum to get to know others like them around the world, as well as get to know those around them much better.

To become a part of this group, Parsi youth must first register with Facebook and then search for the group Parsi Youth within Facebook and send in a request to join the group. Requests will get accepted within 24 hours.

We hope Parsi Youth across the world - agewise, or even young at heart - will join in large numbers.