ICCR streamlines scholarship system for foreign students after complaints against officers

tion in Chittoor, while they had applied for more reputed institutes.”

A source said that the college would send its representative to the ICCR headquarters in Delhi every year to collect hundreds of applications and would get around 500 foreign students even though not a single student had applied for the Chittoor college in the last two years.

A source in the MEA told this newspaper: “Such colleges do not have even basic facilities, including adequate boarding and lodging facilities. Even the medium of instruction and teaching was in a vernacular language which the students could not understand. Some students even complained of racial discrimination faced at such institutions. Such malpractice was also reported by the students to their respective embassies and high commissions in India. This agitated several Heads of State who had threatened to take up this matter at the highest level in India. Some countries even informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of this.” To promote goodwill towards India through soft diplomacy, every year, the ICCR makes provisions to grant academic scholarships to some 3,000 to 3,500 students from several nations to come and study in reputed Indian universities and learn about Indian culture and heritage. For the visiting students, ICCR also organises programmes like Bharat Darshan, summer and winter camps and interactions with Indian dignitaries.

Currently, 6,351 ICCR scholars are studying in different Indian universities. Last year, the ICCR granted scholarships to 1,605 students from different countries to study in India.

A