Amritsar March 19, 2008 :Sixteen year old Varjeet Singh has brought laurels to the city by winning the coveted "Kishore Vaigyanik protsahan Yojanna –Fellowship" (KVPY) by the "Department of Science and Technology" of Government of India under a special programme to encourage brilliant students to pursue research careers in science and other subjects undertaken by the Union Government .
Varjeet is probably the first in the city to have won this prestigious Fellowship in last few decades amongst the student fraternity.A Student of "The Senior Study School "Varjeet gives the credit of his numerous successes to his present principal Mr Vijay Mehra besides coordinator of school Mrs Kanchan Mehra and also his former school principal Mrs Rita Singh.
This prestigious fellowship carries a monthly stipend of Rs 4000 with Rs 16,000 as contingency grant towards travel, stay, study, visits. Varjeet as "Fellow" would be privileged to visit Top Indian Universities, Research Institutions and Research and Development Laboratories throughout the country including Department of Atomic Energy, Deptt of Biotechnology , ISRO, CSIR, ICMR, UGC and Ministry of Human Resource and Development and hold interactions with top scientific figures besides use their facilities for the purpose of Research.
Significantly, according to Prof Dipankar Chatterji Convener KVPY National Scholarships, as many as 19,800 brilliant students nationwide competed for this fellowship and 232 according to official website were selected as fellows in Basic Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Varjeet’s name finds mention in the merit list on the official website.
All praises here for his mother Mrs Amarjeet Kaur and sister Avinder who supported him to pursue his large spectrum of interests Varjeet stood out as a star in all fields that he focused on in the past years.
Mrs Kanchan talking here today said Varjeet has been a multi-faceted student of their school "not only has Varjeet been a brilliant student in academics standing first throughout his schooling he is also a first rate karate black belt recognized by the "Japan Karate Association of India". In the field of fencing Varjeet stood second in state".
In an interaction here today Varjeet revealed that his first ‘real’ taste of success and confidence came from his selection in "India’s child Genius" programme aired by popular Television Channel Star Plus. "Many successes followed with a gold medal in mathematics from the University of New South Wales, Australia in an International assessment of Indian students", he added.
He won the esteemed NTSE scholarship and top ranks in NSTSE for two consecutive years (2006 and 2007). In addition to this, the talented teenager of the city was ranked fourth in country at the Mathematics Olympiad besides clinched top ranking in 9th National Science Olympiad and 99th rank in the country in "Unified Council of India Olympiad"