Gold on fire, organisations awarding medals shifts to cash prizes

MUMBAI: Rising gold prices seems to have led to a shift in long-standing academic traditions. A prominent charitable organisation, which has been instituting gold medals at 14 leading institutions in the country for two decades, recently decided to discontinue the practice and replace the medal with a cash prize of Rs 25,000, which, it is felt, will also go a long way in helping in the students' education.The organisation, Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Trust, has been awarding gold medals to top LLM students at some of the National Law Universities (NLUs), and also traditional ones such as Mumbai University and Savitribai Phule Pune University.

‘Gold rates beyond common man’s reach’Gold prices have been rising at an unprecedented rate and the income from investments has gone down considerably due to lower interest rates. We are a charitable organisation. We have also spoken to some students for feedback and have realised that they prefer cash prizes which can help fund their higher education to some extent.

No one likes to sell gold medals for money as it holds sentimental value,” said Homi P Ranina, one of the trustees.

The medal has now been replaced with a cash prize of Rs 25,000 for LLM toppers at each of the varsities.The Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Gold Medal, made of pure gold, was instituted in 2004 in the memory of the renowned lawyer and eminent constitutional expert who passed away in 2002 at 82. Later on, another component was added to the medal, but pure gold continued to remain a major constituent.

A representative said that the income of the trust comes purely from interest on investments, which has been falling at a rapid rate. “It has become difficult to combat rising gold prices. They have gone beyond [the] common man’s reach and means, but we would like to continue the gesture that was instituted in the memory of Palkhivala,” the representative said, adding they would not wish to disclose the weight of the metal or the cost involved in its making, but added that it was a “substantial” amount.There are 16 other gold medals instituted under eminent names, and for different subjects at Mumbai University. Of these, three medals are made of 18 karat gold and are instituted under the names of MC Chagla for LLM, Vrunda Prabhu for the MSc Mathematics topper and Raghunath Jahagirdar for the fiveyear LLB topper. The remaining are gold-plated medals, said a university source. The gold medals are awarded during the annual convocation ceremony at the university.