Seldom in our lifetime, do we come across such people who prove to be an epitome of what one expects from an outstanding philanthropist. Mr. Naresh Vashisht (Petroleum Engineering, 1967 Batch), with his humongous donation of $1.157 Million (8.2 Crores approx.), proves to be one such example. This donation is one of the biggest donations ever made to a premier institute in the country.

Charity, as they say, begins at home. Mr. Naresh Vashisht, an alumnus of IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, has turned out as the greatest benefactors of IIT (ISM), through his generous donation to the institute’s Endowment Fund. His gift shall impart many benefits to the student community, one of which is, setting up a Tinkering & Innovation Lab at IIT (ISM).

The lab which shall bear his name, “Naresh Vashisht Centre for Tinkering & Innovation”, will foster a high level of creativity and innovation among its students and provide an innovative workspace for them to experiment, learn & transform their ideas into real-time engineering projects. This shall lead to a boost in products, services & patents incubated by the institute. This would prove to be the next stepping stone for the institute to consolidate its claim to one of the premier institutions worldwide.

It was after a yearlong period of tiresome research that a proposal for grant was developed. The proposal to build a world-class facility at the campus was generously adopted by Mr. Naresh Vashisht. The lab, with a space of about 10,000 sq. meter shall have its premises in the newly constructed GRIHA Compliant building inside the institute. The lab along with all the facilities and equipment shall be available to all the students of the Institute.

MR. VASHISHT’s MOTIVATION

Mr. Vashisht is a success story that one would love to read. In the last 28 years, he has been associated with an astonishing total of twenty-six companies. Though he comes from quite humble beginnings, born in a lower-middle-class family in Sambalpur, Odisha. After the sudden & sad event of his father’s death, he along with his mother and two brothers, moved to Phagwara, Punjab to live with his mother’s two brothers who were subsistence farmers. He did his schooling on scholarships, and after graduating from ISM in 1967, he set sail to gain experience in many Oil & Gas Multinationals before starting his entrepreneurial journey in 1987. Voyaging through all ups and downs, he reached the pinnacle of success and is currently the Founder & CEO of Omimex Resources Incorporation.

Given his humble origins, Mr. Vashisht strongly believes in giving back to the society, and through his charitable trust, the Naresh Vashisht Foundation, he makes multiple donations to projects supporting and enabling the financially weak pursue their dreams. Scholarships from his foundation also help financially weak students from IIT (ISM) and support numerous other Nobel causes. His sole advice to young people is:

“Explore as much as you can, run towards things that others run away from
taking calculated risk in order to achieve an extraordinary return on
investments, that is how I achieved all that I have today.”

Reference: The above article was taken from the IIT ISM newsletter.