S Jaishankar inaugurates PhD programme at IITs for ASEAN students in Delhi; 1,000 candidates to be selected for first three years

New Delhi: A massive fully-funded PhD fellowship programme at IITs for students from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries was Monday launched by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, officials said.The programme billed the "the largest of its kind" will select 1,000 students in three batches.Jaishankar inaugurated the programme at the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan in Delhi and also launched a portal for receiving requests from applicants.The government will spend Rs 300 crore on this fully-funded PhD fellowship programme for students from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a senior official of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry said.IIT-Delhi will be the coordinating agency for this programme which will select 1,000 students in the next three years."This year 250 students will be selected, 300 the year after and 450 in the subsequent year," the ministry official said.A senior MEA official said the programme is fully funded by the HRD ministry and the External Affairs Ministry is a partner in it to popularise it through outreach to ASEAN countries.ASEAN is an intergovernmental organization in Southeast Asia. Its 10 member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.