The government today launched a portal to project 160 premier universities and institutions of the country, including the IITs and IIMs, as ideal destination for higher education for foreign students.
There are 15,000 seats for the 2018-19 academic session, with 55 per cent of these having fee waiver. The government aims at having two lakh international students studying in Indian institutions by 2023, the Union HRD Ministry said.
Union Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh and diplomats from 30 countries were present during the launch of the "Study in India" portal.
"We observed that the number of students coming to India for higher studies had become stagnant and more students were going to countries like Singapore and Australia.
"That is when we decided to make a single spot information gateway to attract more students, make our visa process hassle free and also offer fee waiver to students, said Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar in a video message.
Swaraj in her address said, India needs to brought back to its place of being a knowledge hub. The quest for knowledge has always been fundamental to India's culture and civilisation. We can rightly say that India is one of the very few places in the world where ancient traditions and modernity coexist in harmony."
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