“If there were a situation where someone could not benefit from an SMU education for financial reasons, it would be a great loss not only for them but also for SMU. So we are very grateful to you for all your support,” said SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer in thanking Mr Anil Thadani for his recent gift to the University.

Member of the SMU Board of Trustees and Chairman of SMU’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Mr Anil Thadani established the NR Thadani Scholarship in honour of his father in 2009 and has now generously endowed this with an additional gift of $1 million. To show the University’s gratitude, the Professor De Meyer and the Office of Advancement and Alumni invited Mr Thadani and several close family members to a Gift Appreciation Tea on 15 January 2014.

Talking during the tea, Mr Anil Thadani said that the concept of philanthropy is embedded in the Indian culture in the concept of “daan”, which means charity or giving. “It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived,” he added, quoting American philanthropist Helen Walton. Mr Thadani’s nephew, Mr Vishnu Shahhaney, CEO of ANZ Bank Singapore, added that philanthropy also runs in the family.

The NR Thadani Scholarship is available to full-time undergraduates of Indian nationality pursuing any degree programme at SMU. The Scholarship is aimed at motivating outstanding students to achieve academic excellence, as well as to give recognition to the recipients for their accomplishments.

The most recent recipient of the scholarship, third year Social Sciences undergraduate Diya Rao Verghese, said, “Receiving the NR Thadani Scholarship has given me the encouragement to push beyond the limits I’d set myself and the resources to do so.” She went on to say, “I would like to thank Mr Thadani for this generous and prestigious scholarship. The NR Thadani Scholarship has brought a different dimension to my education by helping me explore possibilities that I didn’t have before. I hope to make Mr Thadani proud and will continue to share my future achievements with him.”

One scholarship will be awarded annually and each scholar will receive $20,000 per academic year to fund annual tuition fees and study-related expenses for the recipient’s remaining years of study, subject to meeting qualifying requirements.

Mr Thadani was the co-founder of one of Asia's first private equity investment companies in 1981 and founded Symphony International Holdings Limited in 2004, a private equity investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and sits on the boards of several public and private companies in Singapore, Thailand and India.

Mr Thadani made his first gift to the University to fund the co-curricular activities theatre group, SMU StageIt Productions in 2006. A term gift established the NR Thadani Scholarship in 2009. In January 2014, the NR Thadani Seminar Room was named in appreciation of such generosity.

Main photo: Mr Anil Thadani (3^rdfrom R) and his wife Mrs Coonoor Kripalani-Thadani (2^nd from R), author, and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Hong Kong, with Professor Arnoud De Meyer, President of SMU (3^rd from L) with Mr Thadani’s relatives (L—R): Ms Tara Thadani (daughter), Tsura jewellery; Mr Vishnu Shahhaney (nephew), ANZ Bank Singapore; Ms Vandna Ramchandani (niece), Bloomberg Singapore; and Saniya Ramchandani (great niece), student.

Mr Anil Thadani with the most recently awarded NR Thadani Scholar, Diya Rao Verghese.