MR. MANJUNATH BHANDARY,

     Mr. Manjunath Bhandary, founder of the Bhandary Foundation®, is a visionary par excellence and a dynamic leader who has taken on the cause of the social reforms through education as he believes that education has the power to transform the individual as well as the society.

     Mr. Bhandary has done his B.E. Mechanical engineering, M.A. & M.Phil in Political Science. Presently he is doing Ph.D in political science.

     It is remarkable that Mr. Bhandary received the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship awarded by the Eisenhower Foundation, Philadelphia, USA, from the then US President Mr. George Bush, in the year 2004.

     Mr. Bhandary had imbibed the leadership qualities even as a student by actively involving himself in the student movements. As a youth leader, he was fortunate to take part in several youth exchange programmes round the globe. These visits provided him with opportunities to interact with several distinguished people of international repute and take part in many conferences, seminars and workshops. Some of these visits are very much alive even now in his memory. It was during these formative days that he gained a wide exposure to the fields of education, politics and society.

     Mr. Bhandary who was invited by the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) to participate in the youth exchange programme, became one of the eye-witnesses to the attack on PENTAGON on 11th Sept. 2001. In 2006, he was the Guest of Honour for the Annual Indian Independence Day Parade held in New York along with high profile dignitaries from both, the US and India.

     Mr. Bhandary's concern for the poor rural populace and the weaker sections of the society is evident in the various projects he has proposed to the Government and strived towards their implementation. He is instrumental in the government's ambitious Rural Welfare Scheme called The Rural Common Service Centre (CSCs). "Rajiv Vikas Kendra" , a project he proposed to the Government of India envisaged providing employment to 10 million rural Indian Youth. This proposal was subsequently approved by the Union Cabinet as the CSCs on 21st Sept. 2006.

     As a delegate of the Indian Government, Mr. Bhandary attended the World HIV/AIDS Conference at Barcelona, Spain in 2002. This conference saw Mr. Bhandary with luminaries such as the then President Mr. Bill Clinton, Mr. Nelson Mandela, and other prominent leaders. Deeply moved by the appeals of the global leaders to create HIV awareness in the younger generation, Mr. Bhandary decided to dedicate his time and resources to this noble cause and eventually eradicate HIV/AIDS. The setting up of the Bhandary Foundation ® in the year 2002 was first fillip towards that direction.