Indian students receiving scholarships or stipends from foreign universities or institutions while studying abroad or in India would no longer have to intimate the details to the Union government.
Currently, the details for amounts less than Rs 10 lakh per annum do not have to be intimated, but scholarships beyond that come under scrutiny. This Rs 10 lakh limit would now be done away with, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has agreed. This was on the recommendation of Parliament’s standing committee on home affairs (SCHA), which went through the bill seeking changes in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, which lays down rules for acceptance and utilisation of foreign donations and contributions.
The SCHA felt scholarships and stipends for academic pursuit should not be curbed, directly or indirectly. It suggested a removal of the said reporting restrictions for scholarships and stipends in the pending Bill. The MHA, which was piloting the said legislation, agreed.
Currently, the fee for courses in the US are offered at an average cost of $40,000 (Rs 18.4 lakh) a year, so anyone who gets even about 55 per cent of the fee as scholarship from the foreign university comes under the rule’s purview.
However, the SCHA’s recommendation to restrict the taking of “foreign hospitality” by public servants only when one is travelling in a official position has been rejected by the MHA. Foreign hospitality, as defined in the law, means any offer made in cash or kind by a foreign source for an official on a visit. The committee contended that foreign hospitality was given only because one is in an official position. MHA said a change would only mean that officials and the other public servants would go abroad in their personal capacity and still avail of “official hospitality”.
