‘PhD Fellowship Programme To Help In Internationalising Education Of IITs’

Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced at the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi that India would offer of up to 1000  integrated PhD Fellowships for students from ASEAN countries in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Implementing this commitment, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and HRD Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal formally launched the Fellowship Programme at a ceremony at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi on Monday.

The fellowship programme, instituted with a total budget outlay of Rs 300 crore is the single-largest capacity development initiative of India in partnership with ASEAN.

Speaking about the programme, IIT Director Prof RV Raja Kumar expressed happiness about the move and termed it as extremely promising for IITs as it will help in internationalising the education of the IITs. It opens new avenues for international collaborations and partnerships among ASEAN countries, he said.

He also said, “Through this fellowship programme, we hope for enhanced participation from bright students of ASEAN countries to join our students to do research in cutting-edge areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, smart materials, advanced manufacturing, target drugs and bio-engineering, which will provide a boost to the much needed research output from ASEAN countries and India.”

IIT Delhi has been designated by MHRD as the coordinating IIT for the fellowship programme. It has developed a web portal (http://asean.iitd.ac.in) to administer the application and admission process. Students from ASEAN countries can log in to the portal to apply for PhD programmes of their choice at various IITs.

ASEAN is an inter-governmental organisation in Southeast Asia. Its 10-member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.