Fact Check: Is NGO called Prerana supported by Infosys Foundation?

Origin

A message from the Prerana Infosys Foundation has recently surfaced on the internet pleading the viewers to share the message to help the deserving candidates from poor financial backgrounds for financial help. The message asks the WhatsApp or Facebook/Twitter users to contact three people to get information on the same.

The message states that the NGO focuses on bright students who have scored more than 80 per cent in their 10th. It says that such students can contact the Prerana NGO and appear in a written test. Clearing this written test would enable them to receive a scholarship or financial support for further studies. The NGO is said to be backed by the Indian IT giant Infosys. Take a look at the viral message that has surfaced on the web currently. 

Image courtesy: WhatsApp forwards

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Fact Check on NGO Prerana Infosys foundation

• The claim that the message is from Prerana Foundation which is backed by Infosys is False.
• An article from a news portal back in 2011 had mentioned the links between Prerana Foundation and Infosys. According to the media portal, when Infosys was asked about the same it had stated that the foundation was one of the donors who donate once in a while for the Infosys foundation. But currently, Infosys is not associated with the NGO named Prerana. 
• According to different sources, the viral message has been doing rounds on the web since 2011 throughout Facebook and WhatsApp and resurfaces once in a while.
• Apparently the message was from the Prerana foundation which was active 10 years ago, but now the numbers that are given in the viral message are not even operational.
• The NGO Prerana is not currently being supported by the Infosys Foundation. 
• However, when searched online, the NGO Prerana is actually an organisation set up in Bangalore which provides financial aid to merit students from underprivileged backgrounds.
• In an interview published in a media portal, when the secretary of the NGO Prerana was asked about the same, he stated that the viral message was technically shared 10 years back but now the tech giant Infosys currently does not support the NGO, even though there was an association with Infosys a few years back. He also stated that the numbers of the people listed in the message do not even work at the NGO Prerana anymore. 

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Google Trend Analysis

The number of Google searches for this viral message is slowly increasing with time as is visible in this Google Trends graph. The trends of this viral message have been rising since July 16 and have peaked up today on July 18. 

Image courtesy: Google Trends

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