Scaling great heights in the corporate world, Poonawalla has become an inspiration to generations of women in the city of Pune. Among the first few women to enter the government engineering college in Pune, Poonawalla also paved the way for women to enter shopfloors and make it to the top in the corporate world.

Poonawalla says she wants to return to the city of Pune, which gave her all the opportunities to makeit big. The first step was the setting up of the Lila Poonawalla Foundation scholarship in 1996 with a corpus of Rs 38 lakh. Since then, over 100 students with excellent academic records, have been sent abroad or to Indian universities to pursue post-graduation and doctoral studies.

This year, too, 35 girls will receive scholarships. On an average, scholarships amounting to about Rs 7 lakh are given annually. The scholarships are offered without any strings attached. There is also no restriction of any kind and the girls can pursue studies in subjects of their choice.

In a short span of three years, the Poonawalla Foundation has been able to script the success stories of scores of young women. Take, for instance, Jyoti Dalvi. The daughter of a rickshaw driver, an excellent score in her post-graduate exam was not enough to enable Jyoti to pursue higher studies abroad. But the Poonawalla Foundation offered her a scholarship to study in the UK. This young woman is today making waves in the University ofHull, UK, and has discovered her first chemical crystal while on her doctoral research.

Then there is Supriya Kulkarni, who sought financial support to pay for her post-doctoral studies in paediatrics at a renowned hospital in Melbourne, Australia. With her outstanding performance, Supriya was able to convert her programme from a couple of months to two years and the hospital has happily sponsored her stay of two years in the country, says a proud Poonawalla. Poonawalla talks of another Lila `fellow' doing her management course in Boston and who is being pursued by top financial companies on Wall Street. "She is still negotiating with them," says Poonawalla, who can barely hide her delight at the girl's progress.

Poonawalla, who prefers to call the scholarships fellowships, says, "More than extending a helping hand to the girls to pursue higher studies, it is my ambition to create a large force of dynamic and dedicated girls who would become outstanding professionals in their respective fields." As oneTetra Pak hand says, let there be more Lila Poonawallas in the country.