MHRD’s initiative ‘Study in India’ (SII), introduced in 2018 to encourage students from neighbouring countries is spreading its wings by introducing IND-SAT aptitude test, to award scholarships to meritorious students from African and Asian countries.
The first edition of the IND-SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in May 2020 across 13 countries. The exam will be held for Asian and African students for scholarships to ‘Study in India’ . These countries include India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Zambia, Indonesia and Mauritius.
As proposed in Budget 2020, the government plans to lure the best brains to pursue their higher education in Indian institutes.
“In the first phase, we are conducting the exam in 13 of the 40 target countries keeping in view logistical and socio-political limitations. We plan to extend the exams in remaining countries in future,” says Manoj Kumar, newly appointed chairman and managing director, Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL).
EdCIL has been introducing programmes to attract international students for MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) which had introduced SII, reports govtsarkarinaukri.com.
Students will be assessed on English language skills, Math and logical reasoning. According to media reports, NTA will soon release the sample papers for the exam.
“While the sanctioned number of scholarships is 2000, we plan an additional 700 grants that are remaining from last year’s fund allocation. Around 80% of the scholarships will be granted to undergraduate students and the remaining 20% is for postgraduate students,” says Kumar.
In 2019, as many as 3200 students were enrolled in various institutes through SII, out of which a total of around 1800 were awarded scholarships.
The admission registration at SII portal for academic year 2020-2021 has begun and Kumar estimates that around 7200 students will be appearing for the IND-SAT exam this year.
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