By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Thursday approved the renaming of the Fulbright Scholarship as the Fulbright-Jawaharlal Nehru Scholarships and Grants.
The cabinet, at a meeting here presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also gave its approval to a revised draft agreement between the Indian and US governments for financing education exchange programmes.
“The agreement will facilitate an expansion of the existing Fulbright educational exchange programme to double the number of scholars exchanged with financial contribution by the Indian government and its equal participation in policy and decision-making in the board of the US-India Education Foundation,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan
Dasmunsi told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
Initially about 240 students from India and an equal number from the US will be sponsored annually under the programme, he added.
“The agreement would serve the government’s objectives of supporting and encouraging Indian studies, research, instruction and other educational activities for US citizens and nationals in India and Indian citizens and nationals in US schools and institutions in or outside the US,” the minister pointed out.
“It would also facilitate visits and interchanges between students and trainees, teachers, instructors and professors; as also other related educational and cultural programmes and activities by American scholars, students and researchers in India and similar projects by Indian scholars in the US,” he added.
The agreement would also encourage exchanges between American academics and Indian universities.
“Indian researchers assisting visiting US scholars would benefit greatly from associating with the US visitors’ work. Host institutions and organisations on both sides would have the opportunity to develop the desired linkages,” Dasmunsi pointed out.
This apart, the agreement would give the government “greater ability to steer the programmes and activities to better reflect our priorities and to participate in the selection of the Indian and US beneficiaries of the programme and their areas of work,” he added.
The agreement is also intended to complement and supplement, with support to research and capacity building, the India-US bilateral initiatives of 2005-06 in agriculture, clean energy, climate change, science and technology, and global issues of common concern, Dasmunsi said.