we intend to celebrate the tremendous contributions made by nearly 250 men and women who have won the rhodes scholarship to oxford over the past decades writes elizabeth kissjust a few weeks after india celebrated 75 years of independence we mark the anniversary of a remarkable angloindian partnership 75 years of the rhodes scholarship in indiait is an opportunity to look back and celebrate the tremendous contributions to india and the world made by the nearly 250 men and women who have won the rhodes scholarship to oxford over the past decadesbut this anniversary also spurs us to look to the future and commit to expanding the opportunities available to brilliant young people across this great countryindian rhodes scholars have gone on to distinguished careers in a wide variety of fields scientists jurists journalists cricketers olympians university leaders entrepreneurs public servants and more they include such remarkable individuals as girish karnad the playwright author actor and director padma vibuhushan awardwinning economist and policy expert montek singh ahluwalia letten prize winner tarunabh khaitan and trailblazing advocate menaka guruswamy and yidan prizewinning educational innovator rukmini banerji to name just a few tackling humanitys challengesbeyond the opportunity to study at the worlds oldest englishspeaking university rhodes scholars also join a global community of rhodes alumni committed to having a positive impact on the world a community that includes such inspirational figures as president bill clinton prime ministers bob hawke and malcolm turnbull nobel laureates in medicine and economics and heads of major international organisations including the gates foundation the aspen institute and oxfam we like to say that rhodes scholars are called to fight the worlds fight and we are inspired by the ways scholars from many countries have joined forces to tackle humanitys greatest challenges including climate change and covid19we are determined to ensure that soughtafter scholarship is open to people from the widest array of backgrounds and areas of interest across india our latest round of applications which closed only a few weeks ago attracted candidates from every corner of india with applications from 27 out of the 28 states and 3 out of the 8 union territories in recent years we have welcomed our first scholars from kashmir and nagaland and indian scholars from more than 90 different undergraduate institutions across india and around the worldincreasing the participationwe are committed to raising funds to permanently endow more indian rhodes scholarships so that more remarkable students from this great country can join and contribute to our global community we are also working through our partner programmes rise and schmidt science fellows to recruit and support talented indian students at earlier and later phases of their lives we believe that investing in and connecting publicspirited people who are unlikeminded but likehearted will have an exponential impact for good as we celebrate the illustrious past and present of the indian rhodes scholarships we embrace the challenge to do more to support the amazing diversity talent and energy in india todaythe author