The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is staring at several unclaimed scholarships offered to children of Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). As many as 150 scholarships are offered under the Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children, 50 of which are reserved for those from the Gulf countries.
The scholarship is offered to those who want to pursue undergraduate courses in Indian universities and institutions in different fields barring medical and related courses.
Speaking during a session on “Nurturing India’s Young Ambassadors: Reaching out to Indian Students Abroad,” Dnyaneshwar Mulay, Secretary (OIA & CPV), MEA, said there were not enough applications for this year. This was revealed even as participants in the session raised concerns of there not being enough options for students in the Gulf countries to pursue their higher education.
Other concerns
At the session, Vani Rao, Joint Secretary (OIA-2), MEA, revealed that the Ministry would get in touch with foreign embassies to prepare a registry of recognised agents to prevent students from being duped into taking admissions in dubious institutions. This was one of the issues put forth by an international student bodies in a meeting with the Ministry in September. Ms. Rao added that the Ministry was in the process of putting together a database of students abroad — said to be a whopping 6.5 lakh. Though only 9,000 have registered so far, the MEA will look to make it an interactive portal as the next step, she said.
The other issues raised by students during the session were the police registration process, which they termed as “time consuming”. One student sought decentralisation of this process at the university level.
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Guidelines to develop world-class varsities
The Union government will soon announce official guidelines to develop 20 educational institutions into “ world-class” universities to compete with top-ranking institutions on a global scale. Ten public varsities and 10 private institutions will be selected, said Prakash Javdekar, Minister for Human Resource Development.
