Niyaz Panakaje
MANGALURU: When he was admitted to class one, Niyaz Panakaje’s parents were too poor to give him books and a bag. But the little boy was not disheartened, instead, he went over to a neighbour and offered to work as a domestic help to fund his schooling.
Since then, he has been juggling odd jobs to stay on course. The journey ended on a high note on Saturday when Niyaz, now 29, was awarded PhD in commerce for his paper, Role of cooperative banking in socio-economic development of rural Muslim communities A study in DK district of Karnataka), at the 39th convocation of Mangalore University.