5 July:India and the US on Friday inked an agreement that would double the number of scholarships under the popular Fulbright educational exchange programme.
The student exchange programme, popular as the Fulbright Scholarships, will now be known as the ‘Fulbright-Jawaharlal Nehru Scholarships and Grants’ as India will also make a direct financial contribution to the initiative.
Currently, about 100 Indian students visit the US for higher studies and an equal number of American students pursue their educational interests in New Delhi.
These numbers would approximately double under the new agreement.
The agreement for ‘Financing Certain Educational Exchange Programmes’, signed in New Delhi by Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and US Ambassador David C. Mulford, supersedes the Fulbright Agreement revised in 1963.
The first pact was signed in 1950 between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then US Ambassador Loy Henderson.
India and the US will implement the programme as full partners and increase by 100 per cent the total scholarship amount awarded annually to five million dollars.
Besides making a direct financial contribution to the programme, India will co-chair the Board of Directors of the Foundation and participate equally in policy and decision-making on the exchange of Indian and US scholars under the India-US programme.
The programmes of the Foundation will continue to finance studies, research, instruction and other educational activities, visits and exchanges of students, trainees, teachers, instructors and Professors. Courtsey : DD NEWS