Scholarship from Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India has introduced a Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children (SPDC) for the children of PIOs/NRIs to pursue undergraduate programmes for Professional and General courses in Higher and Technical Institutions in India. The Educational Consultants India Limited ( Ed.CIL), a Government of India Enterprise, has been designated as the Nodal Agency for implementation of the SPDC. Assistance on merit basis is provided to the children of Diaspora (Persons of Indian Origin {(PIOs) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)} under the SPDC for the academic year 2007-2008.

Under this Scheme, 100 admission-cum-scholarships shall be offered for Undergraduate courses in Engineering/Technology, Humanities/Liberal Arts, Commerce, Management, Journalism, Hotel Management, Agriculture/Animal Husbandry, Science, etc to partially fund the tuition fees.

The scholarships will be offered on merit on the basis of a Common Written Examination to be held in Kuwait on Sunday, May 6, 2007. A detailed booklet prepared by Ed.CIL covering the guidelines, application forms and other details regarding the programme is attached. (Contact details of Educational Consultants India Limited : Ed.CIL House, 18A Sector 16A, Noida – 201 303 (Uttar Pradesh). Phone: 91-120-2515281 / 2512001; Fax: 0091-120-2515372; E-mail: placement@edcil.co.in; placement@edcil.emet.in ; Web: www.edcil.co.in, www.educationindia4u.nic.in.
The broad guidelines of the SPDC are as follows:

i) Children of Overseas Indians from 39 countries (list attached) covering Africa, Asia, Gulf and the Caribbean will be covered under the SPDC Scheme;

ii) Minimum age limit is 17 years and maximum age limit is 21 years as on October 1, 2007. Children of NRIs studying abroad for a minimum of 5 years with XI and XII schooling abroad will be covered under the SPDC scheme;

iii) The scholarship will be a partial scholarship to fund the tuitionfees for the course concerned;

iv) Eligibility for scholarships will be based on the basis of qualifyingmarks of 60% in Class XII and score in the entrance test to be managed by EDCIL. Candidates who have scored 60% aggregate marks in their XIIth grade will be eligible to appear in the entrance test. Students who are appearing for XIIth grade examination this year will also be eligible to appear in the test, but their selection will be confirmed subject to their fulfilling the eligibility criteria of 60% marks in XII;

v) The proposed entrance test will be of objective type of two hour duration comprising English language proficiency, Reasoning Ability/Quantitative Abilities and General Awareness. The examination will be conducted in Kuwait by the Embassy. The general standard of the examination will be that of 12th Standard of Indian educational system.

vi) Original Application Form (Hard copies only), complete in all respects are to be submitted to the Project Manager (MOIA), Educational Consultants India Limited, Ed.CIL House 18-A, Sector 16-A, NOIDA-201301 (India) latest by 23 rd March 2007.

vii) The last date for receiving the original application form in Ed.CIL is March 23, 2007;

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SPDC -2007-08 INFORMATION BOOKLET AND APPLICATION FORM
http://www.educationindia4u.nic.in/shared/downloaditems/Img74.pdf