Association of Muslims professionals holds largest national talent search exam for students

Mumbai-based non-profit organisation Association of Muslims Professionals (AMP) has made a mark by conducting the largest national talent search exam among its community members. Around 55,000 school and college students from 524 cities across 300 districts participated in the recently held National Talent Search (NTS) 2023.
“After three years of online exams, we held both online and offline exams this year.Top 500 scorers will be given 100% IIT-JEE/NEET coaching scholarships worth Rs 10 crore by AMP’s 23 training partners across the country,” the association’s founder-president Aamir Edresy said. This was the first time that AMP conducted the NTS exam in offline mode, he added.
The NTS was launched four years ago to help underprivileged students, especially in the rural areas, to realise their dreams through scholarship.
M Idrish Musa, an overseas education consultant and state secretary (Gujarat) who has been involved with AMP for years and for this year’s NTS launch in Ahmedabad on October 8, said the top three winners in each category will also get a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each.
Idrisi’s dream was to provide a platform to educated youths, especially Muslims, to channelise their time and talent to a social cause, said Edresy. “We want professionals employed in companies or doing business to handhold those who have been left behind,” he added. Instead of calling every needy student to Mumbai, AMP ensures that they are guided and tutored locally, thus saving time and money of both the mentors and the mentees.
Idrisi, who has extensively toured the country and visited dozens of institutions and met scores of professionals, said: “My interactions with students and their parents showed that the children in rural areas are talented but do not get opportunities like those in urban areas. We want to give hope to students from rural areas through this scholarship,” he added.
AMP has also launched indiazakat.com, India’s first zakat-based crowdfunding platform, which has helped thousands of students get financial help. Zakat is 2.5% of the annual savings Muslims must give to charity.