IITS launch fellowships for ASEAN students
NEW DELHI: India on Monday launched a fully funded PHD fellowship programme at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) for students from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), with officials describing it as part of the government’s “Act East” policy.
A total of 1,000 fellowships will be given at India’s foremost technical education centres to students from the 10 Asean states, and the outlay for the programme will be ₹300 crore. The launch event was attended by envoys and senior diplomats from the Asean states.
The scholarships were announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 25th anniversary commemorative Aseanindia Summit held in New Delhi in January 2018.
The fellowships will be given out in three lots of 250 this year, 300 in 2020 and 450 in 2021. The programme will be funded by the human resource development ministry and the external affairs ministry will help popularise it in the Asean states. Iit-delhi will be the coordinator for the programme. “There is a need for us to welcome foreigners. I personally believe we should have done this programme 20 years ago. But better late than never,” Iitdelhi director V Ramgopal Rao said.
“Is he [Farooq Abdullah] under detention,” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who said he would need to get instructions from J&K administration.
Mehta also opposed issuing of a formal notice to the government on the petition, arguing that Vaiko did not have “a locus standi in this case”.
“It is an abuse of process by the petitioner. What was he doing till now ? He does not have any authorisation to file the petition on Farooq Abdullah’s behalf,” Mehta argued.
The three-judge bench, also comprising justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer, told the Centre to respond before September 30, when it will take up the petition again.arguing for Vaiko, senior advocate Ajmal Khan told the court that there is uncertainty over the status of Abdullah as the home minister had said he has not been detained, but he didn’t have any right to movement or liberty.
In his petition, Vaiko said Abdullah was to participate in