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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks)...

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks) distributed to Class V-VIII students in 52 government and private schools. “The aim was to inculcate a love for ‘saving and reading’ among young children. We started by presenting small plastic ‘gullaks’ (savings boxes) at the Iqra Boys & Girls High School, and later to many other schools,” Mirza said with a tinge of satisfaction. Scoffed by sceptics, it soon caught the eyes of the schools and parents who loved the idea that kept the kids off mischief, but gave them the joy of quietly slipping Re. 1 or even Rs. 5 save from their daily pocket money into the ‘gullak’. “That tiny ‘gullak’ costing barely Rs 3-Rs 5, becomes almost like their personal tiny bank which they guard fiercely and nobody dares touch it. At the right time they spend the accumulated savings to buy books of their choice – with no questions asked. Isn’t it better than wasting it on toys or sweets or amusement,” chuckled Mirza. A childhood bookworm himself, Mirza, now 50, remembers how he dipped into his school’s ‘Book Box’ to avail books of his choice and read them along with the regular syllabus. “Reading became my passion, not shared by many then or even now… Sadly, in the current era, reading and saving are dying habits. I am trying to revive them for the good of the people and country,” Maulana Mirza told The Perfect Voice. After graduation, Mirza was jobless for sometime, and decided to make his passion as a profession – he took books in a barter deal from the renowned Nagpur philanthropist, Padma Bhushan Maulana Abdul Karim Parekh, lugged them on a bicycle to hawk outside mosques and dargahs. He not only sold the entire stock worth Rs 3000 quickly, but asked astonished Parekh for more – and that set the ball rolling in a big way, ultimately emboldening him to launch the NGO, ‘Read & Lead Foundation’ (2018). “However, despite severe resources and manpower crunch, we try to cater to the maximum number of students, even outside the district,” smiled Mirza. The RLF is also supported by his daughter Mariyam Mirza’s Covid-19 pandemic scheme, ‘Mohalla Library Movement’ that catapulted to global fame, and yesterday (Oct. 20), the BBC telecast a program featuring her. The father-daughter duo urged children to shun mobiles, video-games, television or social media and make ‘books as their best friends’, which would always help in life, as they aim to gift 1-lakh students with ‘gullaks’ in the next couple of years. At varied intervals Mirza organizes small school book fairs where the excited kids troop in, their pockets bulging with their own savings, and they proudly purchase books of their choice in Marathi, English, Hindi or Urdu to satiate their intellectual hunger. Fortunately, the teachers and parents support the kids’ ‘responsible spending’, for they no longer waste hours before screens but attentively flip pages of their favourite books, as Mirza and others solicit support for the cause from UNICEF, UNESCO, and global NGOs/Foundations. RLF’s real-life savers: Readers UNICEF’s Jharkhand District Coordinator and ex-TISS alumnus Abul Hasan Ali is full of gratitude for the ‘gullak’ habit he inculcated years ago, while Naregaon Municipal High School students Lakhan Devdas (Class 6) and Sania Youssef (Class 8) say they happily saved most of their pocket or festival money to splurge on their favourite books...! Zilla Parishad Girls Primary School (Aurangpura) teacher Jyoti Pawar said the RLF has proved to be a “simple, heartwarming yet effective way” to habituate kids to both reading and savings at a tender age, while a parent Krishna Shinde said it has “changed the whole attitude of children”. “We encourage books of general interest only, including inspiring stories of youth icons like Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai (28) and environmentalist Greta Thunberg (23) which fascinates our students, and other popular children’s literature,” smiled Mirza. The Maulana’s RLF, which has opened three dozen libraries in 7 years, acknowledges that every coin dropped into the small savings boxes begins a new chapter – and turns into an investment in knowledge that keeps growing.

Rolls-Royce, IIT-B ink strategic tech pact

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Mumbai: The Rolls-Royce and Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) have signed a pact to foster knowledge exchange, drive innovation and together develop future-ready engineering talent, officials said here.

 

The move, which underscores the growing synergy between Indian academic institutions and global industry leaders, will allow IIT-B students to get internship opportunities with Rolls-Royce’ defence engineering team in Bengaluru, plus gain exposure to advanced tech development in modern day real-world industrial settings.

 

This collaboration also aims to open doors for joint research projects, skill-building programmes, and technology co-creation in areas of mutual interest, said the officials.

 

The agreement was signed by IIT-B’s Dean (Research & Development) Prof. Sachin C. Patwardhan and Rolls-Royce India Executive Vice-President G. S. Selwyn, in the presence of the Rolls-Royce Director of Business Development and Future Programmes (UK & International) Alex Zino, besides senior representatives from both sides.

 

“The partnership with IIT-B reflects our broader commitment to building strategic collaborations that advance shared ambitions in innovation, talent development, and technology leadership,” said Selwyn on the occasion.

 

He said that as his company deepens its engagement with India, initiatives such as this would “help unlock new opportunities to co-create solutions,” through structured engagement between the academic and industrial ecosystems.

 

The second oldest in India, IIT-B at Powai was established in 1958 and ranks among the  premier engineering institutions, world-renowned for producing top-tier graduates and groundbreaking research in multiple streams.

 

It has consistently ranked among the best engineering universities in Asia and recognised for its strong industry linkages, state-of-the-art research facilities, and a vibrant culture of innovation.

 

IIT-B has multiple Centres of Excellence, fostering advances in fields ranging from aerospace engineering to AI and sustainability, and its alumni have gone on to captain global technology companies, research institutions, and government bodies.

 

Started as a luxury car manufacturing company some 120 years ago in the United Kingdom, today Rolls-Royce is a global leader in power and propulsion technologies serving markets ranging from civil and defence aerospace to marine engineering.

 

Years ago, Rolls-Royce had supplied engines for the Indian Air Force’s first combat aircraft, the Jaguar, and other fighter planes. The company’s Bengaluru engineering centre is a hub for innovation in defence aerospace delivering solutions for both Indian and international programmes.

 

Experts consider the new partnership ‘crucial’ as India’s engineering and technological ecosystem is in a transformative stage, driven by a push for indigenous capability development and supported by a growing pool of highly talented engineers.

 

“Such collaborations between IIT-B and Rolls-Royce are viewed as essential to narrow the gap between academic research and industrial applications, enhance talent readiness and accelerate the translation of theoretical breakthroughs into deployable technologies,” remarked a technocrat.

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