On the occasion of the Khalsa tercentenary, Baljit Chadha donated the amount which will be used to establish two endowments of $150,000 each at the McGill and Concordia universities. To begin with, ten scholarships of $2,500 each will be granted out of these endowments to undergraduate South Asian students, minority community students and others. The scholarships will be awarded to deserving students and the selection will also be based on merit, said Balbir Sawhney, a professor at Concordia University and spokesman for the Chadha Family Foundation that donated the money. The objective of these endowments "is to support Indo-Canadians, visible minorities and others in their pursuit of higher education," Sawhney said. Sawhney said letters had already been exchanged between the Chadha Family Foundation and the two universities.The Chadha Family Foundation wants to start 50 such scholarships and extend it to the whole of Canada, he said. Other Canadian institutions will get additional amounts, he said.

"The Indo-Canadian community, having faced difficulties in the early years of its `continuous journey' has come to play an important role in the mainstream of Canadian society," Sawhney said. "Active participation in religious and cultural activities within and outside the Indo-Canadian community is well manifest in the multicultural mosaic of Canada," he said. "With the establishment of the scholarship endowments, the community has launched a process of supporting students in their studies," he noted. Baljit Chadha is president of Balcrop, which has interests in the dry fruits business and trade. According to Sawhney, the Chadha family has already donated large sums of money for community activities.