Indian Centre for Encouraging Excellence, Bombay, chose Dr. V.V. (Appa) Pendse, the founder-director of Jnana Prabodhini for Excellence Award, in 1975. The Citation was as follows
In felicitating you, we are felicitating a pioneer in the field of Education of gifted youth of this country.
As a student, you felt concerned about the brilliant youth of our country drifting dreamlessly away from social concern. At the same time, you were convinced that given understanding guidance and enrichment, our brighter men can be a power for good, can measure up to the need of the hour.
You had such faith in yourself and others, that you decided to dedicate your entire life to this cause. With no funds or friends to back you, you started almost as one man giving shape to your unique idea, the idea of an institution where intellectually gifted children would be selected psychometrically and looked after during their impressionable years.
Your clear vision, your scientific temper, your missionary zeal, and your sustained efforts made your idea come true in the form of the organization Jnana Prabodhini
Fourteen years young, your creation, Jnana Prabodhini is a unique institution. It is engaged in what Swami Vivekanand calls "Man-making education." It is keeping the students in lively and enthusiastic touch with realities of the country, with the masses of the country. Jnana Prabodhini is rooted in Indian Spiritualism, in the pragmatic sense of the word. It is at the same time aspiring for the most modern scientific achievements. Its field of work encompasses all that matters to man, experimental education, rural upliftment, applied research, organized industries, and integrated personality growth. Jnana Prabodhini is more than an experiment: it is a pacesetter, it is a multiplier model.
You have been and are directing this organization against odds, environmental and financial. And more, at this young age of sixty, you are restlessly working for the spreading of this movement to the rest of this vast country. Being the worker, motivator, and organizer that you are, Appasaheb, we at the Indian Centre for Encouraging Excellence pray for many more years of your service in the cause of building the youth for responsive leadership. Please accept this award for Excellence as a token of our respect admiration and affection.
