Scholarships for Indian expatriates

Of the 150 scholarships announced by the Indian government, 50 are for children of Indian workers in the 17 ECR countries

Times News Service

MUSCAT: India’s government is offering scholarships to Indian students from Oman and abroad to pursue undergraduate programmes for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Undergraduate programmes

“Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children (SPDC) 2018-19 is available for children of NRIs/ PIOs in Oman for pursuing undergraduate programmes,” a statement from the Indian Embassy in Muscat read.

The scholarships are open to applicants, aged between 17 to 21 years, and the deadline for application is September 30. “Detailed guidelines are available at http:// www.spdcindia.gov.in/login/ guideline.php,” it added.

Scholarships will be provided to 150 selected students. Of these, 50 scholarships are earmarked for children of Indian workers (CIWG) in the 17 Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries, subject to fulfilling of eligibility conditions.

Under these 50 scholarships 1/3rd shall be reserved for children who are pursuing studies in India, subject to fulfilling eligibility conditions. “If any of these seats are not filled up, they will be made available to applicants from other categories under SPDC and viceversa,” it added.

ECR countries

The ECR countries include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children (SPDC) is awarded to following four categories. “Children of Person of Indian Origin/OCI, children of Non-Resident Indian, children of Indian Workers in ECR countries studying outside India and children of Indian workers in ECR countries studying in India,” it added.

Eligibility

The SPDC is open to applicants in the age group of 17 to 21 years as on October 1, 2018. The candidate must have passed the Senior Secondary (10+2) or equivalent examination from a system of education recognised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), with requisite subjects.

The candidate must have secured a minimum of 60 per cent aggregate marks or equivalent grades in aggregate of all the subjects in the qualifying examination.

Salary certificate

It also said that the total monthly income of the parent(s) of the candidate should not exceed an amount equivalent to $4,000.

“The applicants’ parents will provide a self attested salary certificate from the employer based in a foreign country. In case information about family income is found incorrect, scholarship will be revoked and the amount already disbursed will be recovered. Legal action may also be initiated against the defaulter,” it added.