Updated posts August 2026
Sankara Eye Foundation’s Be The Light Gala Aims to End Curable Blindness in India
On October 7th, the Sankara Eye Foundation will host its annual Be The Light Gala, a fundraising event dedicated to helping eliminate curable blindness in India. The gala will be held at Cipriani 25 Broadway, beginning at 6:30 PM.
The Be The Light Gala looks to raise money to provide free eye surgeries to visually impaired citizens across India. With more than 45 million people in India suffering from eye disease, and 12 million of them blind, SEF works to treat the roughly 80 percent of cases considered curable. SEF will perform 450,000 free eye surgeries this year across its eleven Sankara Eye Hospitals and ten partner eye hospitals, working steadily toward its Vision 2030 goal of providing one million free eye surgeries annually across India.
“The Be The Light Gala is our most important fundraising event of the year,” says Murali Krishnamurthy, Founder and Executive Chairman of Sankara Eye Foundation, USA. “With an overwhelming demand for eye care in India, we want to raise as much money as possible to help as many people as possible. With each patient whose eyesight we restore, we know we are inching one step closer to our mission to eliminate curable blindness in India.”
A Night of Purpose, Performance, and Recognition
The keynote speaker will be Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Zscaler Inc. In addition to running his cybersecurity firm, Chaudhry ranked 79 on the 2022 Forbes 400 list and was a 2018 finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Before founding Zscaler, Chaudhry founded SecureIT and CipherTrust, which were later acquired by VeriSign and Secure Computing Corporation. He also founded AirDefense and CoreHarbor, later acquired by Motorola and AT&T.
Entertainment for the evening will be provided by Geetesh Iyer and The Incident. Iyer is a renowned singer, songwriter, and performer, a 2010 Indian Idol finalist and 2011 X Factor India finalist who has performed alongside several respected Indian artists, including Shankar Mahadevan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Neha Kakkar, and Atif Aslam.
The Incident is a leading Indian-American band based in the tri-state area, known for collaborating with prominent singers such as Shaan and Kavita Krishnamurthy on musical performances. Drawing influence from rock, jazz, R&B, and Bollywood, the band blends modern and nostalgic Indian music with Western sound in seamless harmony.
What $30 Can Accomplish
What makes SEF’s mission particularly striking is the sheer efficiency behind it, each surgery costs just $30, yet restores full independence to a patient who may have lived years without functional vision. That kind of outsized impact per dollar is part of what has allowed the organization to scale so rapidly, moving from 355,000 surgeries last fiscal year toward its ambitious goal of a million annually by 2030.
Individual tickets are $500, with VIP tickets priced at $1,000. Tables are available for $5,000, and VIP tables cost $10,000. Sponsorship opportunities are also available.
Cipriani is located on 25 Broadway, New York, New York. For more information, or to donate, call 1 (866) SANKARA (726-5272) or visit https://sefcharitygala.org/
About Sankara Eye Foundation
Sankara Eye Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free eye surgeries to those experiencing blindness or other visual impairment across India. The organization relies on donations to help eradicate curable blindness, performing eye surgeries for just $30 USD each. Sankara performed 355,000 eye surgeries last fiscal year and has built the capacity to perform 490,000 this year. By 2030, the organization hopes to reach its March to a Million goal of performing one million free eye surgeries annually.
