Monica had told me that she will be the one to open the letter that awards the 80G exemption and the 12AA registration to ShikshaDaan. Boy, was she prophetic ! On July 13^th, when she opened our mailbox, to take out all the mails that had come in our absence at Gurgaon, she found a letter from the CIT, exemptions, Chandigarh. Out came the letter and she immediately scanned it and sent it to us ….. Ah finally !! A huge sigh of relief for Krishnan and I as ShikshaDaan is now registered with the Income Tax department. ShikshaDaan’s 12AA registration is approved.

What this does is allows ShikshaDaan to receive the corporate CSR funds, which is a huge help as it allows us to ramp up our scholarships. The 80G exemption is still eluding us, but we are very hopeful that the 80G will also be approved soon.

With all the news about huge delays and hints of malpractices in the NGO world, we would like to appreciate the CIT exemptions Chandigarh, Mr. Amaresh Singh, who cleared the 12AA request far quicker than any of his predecessors. His office has been thorough in asking for details and scanning through all our documents, but he didn’t waste much time. Special thanks to Mr. Tej Mohan for representing us. Karan, thanks for all the legwork. Mr. Pramod Jain and Harshit at Lunawat & Co for getting all the paperwork ready in a jiffy and also for laying the right foundation for ShikshaDaan with the well structured trust deed.

Vandana, the 12AA I believe is Alam’s gift to ShikshaDaan. He kept telling us that he can help and we never listened to him, but he spoke through you and made this happen. God bless his soul and really, he hasn’t left, he is still continuing to help move things forward. We will constitute an Alam scholarship soon in consultation with you and Ria.

July 13^th 2016 will be special for us for many many years. I was always special because four of our friends celebrate their birthday on that day and now we have one more reason to celebrate!

Monica, praying that you get to open the 80G approval too and soon :).