St Anne’s College is delighted to announce the launch of The Pichumoney Viswanath Fund. The fund will support travel and research grants, existing prizes for performance, and any additional prizes, awards or grants that may be relevant in economics or related subjects in a given year. The Fund will be available annually.
This fund has been instituted by our alumna Dr Raghavi Viswanath (BCL, 2018) to honour and celebrate her father, P. Viswanath, who passed away in September 2023.
Raghavi writes: “Viswanath was a precociously talented chartered accountant, the first in his family to qualify in India. His friends would often tease him for being part of the rare group who cleared the notoriously competitive exams on his very first attempt – a sign of the exceptional accountant he would grow to become. His career took him across India, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Zimbabwe, where he held senior finance leadership roles.
What defined him most was his love of education. In 2008, he paused his professional career to pursue advanced studies at the Wharton Business School – despite the financial challenges this posed – simply for the joy of being able to study finance again. Even after stepping back from full-time work, he qualified as an insolvency professional in India and consulted with companies under business rescue. His many accomplishments, though, always sat lightly on his shoulders.
Viswanath was deeply aware of the privilege of being able to bear the cost of education and was committed to supporting those whose means did not allow them to pursue the same dreams. He firmly believed that financial literacy is a public good: developing training modules for young people and women, presenting them at universities, and guiding start-ups in building financially sustainable systems. Whether mentoring young professionals, creating academies for public speaking, or offering quiet acts of care, he built communities of learning and belonging wherever he went.
Through this fund, his family hopes to extend that legacy to future generations of students at St Anne’s: enabling those with limited means to pursue research and careers in finance, economics, and business – subjects that were his deepest passions – and foster new communities of care and literacy in the spirit of his life.”
The goals of the fund are fully aligned with the mission of St Anne’s: to help our students understand the world and change it for the better. We look forward to making the first awards from the fund.