India announces $500,000 Quad scholarship for Indo-Pacific students | External Affairs Defence Security News

Narendra Modi | (Photo: Shutterstock)

3 minutes of reading Last update: 22 Sep 2024 | 15:59 IST

India has announced a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships worth $500,000 to students from the Indo-Pacific region.

These scholarships will enable students to pursue a four-year engineering degree program at a technical college funded by the Indian government, according to the Wilmington Declaration issued after the fourth in-person Quad Summit.

President Joe Biden’s Quad Leaders’ Summit took place Saturday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan attending.

“India is pleased to announce a new initiative to award fifty Quad Scholarships worth $500,000 to students from the Indo-Pacific region to pursue a four-year engineering degree at an Indian government-funded technical university,” the statement said.

As stated in the Declaration, the Quad is committed to strengthening deep and lasting bonds between our people and our partners. Through the Quad Fellowship, we are building a network of the next generation of leaders in science, technology and policy.

The Quad governments also welcomed the second batch of Quad Fellows through the Institute of International Education, which is spearheading the implementation of the Quad Fellowship. For the first time, students from ASEAN countries will also be included, it said.

The Japanese government supports the program to enable Quad Fellows to study in Japan. The Quad welcomes the generous support of private sector partners for the next group of fellows, including Google, the Pratt Foundation and Western Digital, the declaration said.

This year’s Quad Leaders’ Summit was originally scheduled to be held in India, but President Biden wanted to host the event in his hometown.

In 2017, the United States, Japan, India and Australia gave shape to the long-awaited project of establishing the “Quad”, or a four-sided coalition that would counter China’s aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region.

The quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quadrilateral, advocates for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. China says the group aims to contain its growth.

This year’s summit is a farewell event for both U.S. President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida before they step down from their posts.

On space, Quad leaders “recognize the important contribution of space-related applications and technologies in the Indo-Pacific region.”

“Our four countries intend to continue providing Earth observation data and other space-based applications to help countries in the Indo-Pacific region strengthen early warning systems for climate change and better manage the impacts of extreme weather events,” the declaration said.

The Quad leaders also welcomed India’s decision to establish an online portal for Mauritius aimed at supporting the concept of open science for monitoring extreme weather events and climate impacts from space, the declaration said.

(Only the headline and image of the report may have been edited by the Business Standard team; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)

First published: 22 Sep 2024 | 15:59 IST