Founding Donors

Uka and Nalini Solanki

The Yadunandan Center for India Studies was formally inaugurated in 2005 by a generous donation from the Uka and Nalini Solanki Foundation. The goal of the gift was to create a regional center at Cal State Long Beach which would engage with the history and culture of India, South Asia, and the experience of the South Asian diaspora. The Center is named after Nalini Solanki’s great-great grandfather, an early advocate of education in northern India. 

Uka Solanki (1944-2018) was the president and CEO of Big Saver Foods, Inc. He was also the founding president of the Indian Council for the Advancement of Education in India, and the founder, president, and patron donor of the Sardar Patel Award at UCLA.

Along with their charitable giving in the United States, the Solanki Foundation also established a girl’s school in the city of Junagadh in Gujarat, India. The Nalini Solanki-Chatralay School educates more than 1,200 girls a year.