The SASI is pleased to announce it has been awarded two grants. The first, the Shastri Programme Development Grant (an amount of 300,000 RS) will allow the SASI Director and Vice-Chancellor of Panjabi University, Dr. B.S Ghuman to develop two workshops (Canada and India) for stakeholders including policy makers both Canada and India, academic administrators, civil society, researchers, managers of higher education, students, media, to prepare a policy brief for the Canadian and Indian policy makers. The Shastri Programme Development Grant (SPDG) is devised in order to encourage scholarly and professional academic activities with a view to contributing to the expansion of knowledge about India or Canada at Indian /Canadian universities that are members of the Shastri Institute.
The SASI has also received $10,000 from the Hari Sharma Foundation to continue its interview collections of Punjabi settlers across the Province. With the Hari Sharma Foundation Grant for research and publication, the SASI will use the funds to continue research and publication by collecting a further 30 interviews from early Punjabi settlers from across British Columbia. The added importance will be of accessibility and access to the stories online, which will allow the elders’ stories to be shared with the community and passed down as a family legacy for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.