Allindia.com, a Vedika group company, claimed that ABET (http: //www.batchmatestrust.org) is the first of its kind worldwide which would help the alumni to reach out in aid to various educational institutions in India in the way they choose to. ABET will also provide scholarships for talented needy students.

The trust has been set up as an all India body and will operate across the country. Batchmates.com already has developed into a platform for old school and college friends to stay in touch and has reunited nearly 300,000 alumni of over 26,000 schools and collages from 160 countries worldover. They will form the base of ABET, which will be a non-profit organisation.

Explaining why such a trust has been formed, Allindia.com's chief executive officer Sandeep Todi said: "We have been receiving numerous requests by members looking to help their alma mater, each one, in their own way. Except for the handful of leading institutions, which has a significant alumni effort, the rest of the alumni have little or no way to get in touch with their schools or colleges.

Admitting that the number of schools and colleges with a Web-presence and an organised effort is even lower, he said, "Given the crying need for funds in the field of education on the one hand and grateful alumni who wish to contribute to their alma mater, Batchmates.com felt the need of a service by which they could combine the two and we feel that it would do justice to the cause by focussing on the task of channelising funds from Indian alumni to their schools and colleges in India.

A five-member board of trustees has been formed for this purpose. They are director of Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management Ashok Dutta; former director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur GS Sanyal; former vice chancellor of Aligarh Muislim University MN Faruqui; Don Bosco Nitika's Father Peter V Lourdes; and former director of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta Ramu Aiyar.

ABET will be inviting donations and sponsorship from corporate bodies too.