Government Announces 1000 PhD Fellowships for ASEAN Students at IITs

ASEAN PhD Fellowship Announced: Indian Government has announced that it will be offering PhD fellowships to ASEAN students at IITs in India. As per the latest update, MHRD / the Ministry of Human Resource Development has announced a decision to offer 1000 PhD Scholarships to the students from ASEAN countries. Students selected for this fellowship programme will be provided opportunity to study at IITs i.e. Indian Institute of Technology – premier technology institutes of India.

Why ASEAN Fellowship Programme?
The programme is aimed at boosting friendly relations with the ASEAN countries (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and to enhance people-to-people ties between India and its immediate neighbours.

List of ASEAN Countries – Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar(Burma).

Formal Launch on Monday
The programme to offer over 1000 PhD fellowships to the ASEAN students will be launched formally on Monday i.e. 16th September 2019. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal will formally launch the fellowship programme. According to formal press release, the event for the launch of ASEAN Fellowship programme will be attended by Head of missions of ASEAN countries, Chairman of UGC and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, senior officials of ministries of External Affairs and Human Resource Development, Directors of all 23 IITs.

Admission Process
Students from ASEAN Countries, who are hoping to be a PhD fellow at IITs under this programme, will need to submit a formal application for the same through the official website which will be launched soon. The admission portal for ASEAN Fellowship scheme will be managed by IIT Delhi. Admission will be open for students from Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) which comprises of Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.