Chandrayaan-3 project director to donate ₹25 lakh to alma mater
The money would be donated to the Elumalai Polytechnic College in Villupuram, Sri Sairam Engineering College in Chennai, NIT in Trichy and the IIT Madras
The project director of Chandrayaan 3 mission, P Veeramuthuvel, who had received ₹25 lakh from chief minister MK Stalin, from among those from Indian Space Reserach Organisation (Isro) who studied in Tamil Nadu to successfully contribute to space programmes, has decided to donate the money to the alumni associations of his alma mater in the state, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The money would be donated to the Elumalai Polytechnic College in Villupuram, Sri Sairam Engineering College in Chennai, National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Trichy and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.
The government of Tamil Nadu on October 2 had felicitated scientists and engineers of Isro who had pursued their education in Tamil Nadu. Veeramuthuvel received a cash award of ₹25-lakh. He “desires to donate the award money of ₹25 lakh, equally to the Alumni Associations” of the “four Institutes where he studied”, said a statement from the department of Space.
Veeramuthuvel is a resident of Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district and the son of a railway employee. His work came to limelight as the project director of the Chandrayaan-3, India’s unmanned mission to the moon that successfully landed on the South Pole. He began his career at the Lakshmi Machine Works in Coimbatore, before moving to Bengaluru to work with the helicopter division of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL).
Veeramuthuvel pursued a diploma course after completing class 10 in Villupuram as he lacked proper career guidance. “I was an average student during my school days…,” Veeramuthuvel had saidduring a 3-minute undated video on career guidance for students, organised by his former Isro colleague Mylswamy Annadurai. Annadurai was the project director of Chandrayaan-1 mission, in 2022.
“I am a simple person. When I can achieve high in life, everyone can…Hard work will never go unrewarded.” After his diploma, Veeramuthuvel pursed his interest in engineering. “But I kept dreaming of joining Isro and finally I made it,” he added.
