India launches 1000 IIT fellowships for ASEAN students

 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minister of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Monday launched the PhD fellowship programme in IITs for ASEAN students.

According to officials, IIT-Delhi has been designated by the MHRD as the coordinating IIT for the fellowship programme launched at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

"IIT-Delhi has developed a web portal (http://asean.iitd.ac.in) to administer the application and admission process. ASEAN students can log in to the portal to apply for the PhD programmes of their choice at various IITs," said the MEA in a press release.

Adding that the first batch of the ASEAN students will be admitted in January 2020, the ministry said: "Admissions under the programme will be staggered over three academic years, i.e., 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. MHRD will provide scholarships to ASEAN students at par with Indian PhD scholars, along with a yearly research grant, as applicable."

"IITs will make a small provision to cover living expenses of selected students from their own budgetary resources," added the ministry.

The fellowship programme at a total budget outlay of Rs 300 crore (approximately US $ 45 million) is the single-largest capacity development initiative of India in its partnership with ASEAN.

The ministry also added that in January 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced India's offer to provide up to 1000 integrated PhD fellowships for ASEAN students in IITs while attending the 25th Anniversary ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi.

The event was attended by various government officials as well as the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of all ten ASEAN member states here.