India announces USD 0.5 million scholarship for Indo-Pacific students

NEW DELHI: India has announced a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships, worth USD 500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific. These scholarships will enable students to pursue a four-year undergraduate engineering programme at a Government of India-funded technical institution, said the Wilmington Declaration issued after the fourth in-person Quad Summit.

Hosted by President Joe Biden, the Quad Leaders' Summit took place on Saturday in his hometown Wilmington, Delaware. It was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan. "India is pleased to announce a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships, worth USD 500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific to pursue a 4-year undergraduate engineering programme at a Government of India-funded technical institution," the declaration read.

According to the declaration, the Quad is committed to strengthening the deep and enduring ties between our people, and among our partners. Through the Quad Fellowship, we are building a network of the next generation of science, technology, and policy leaders. The Quad governments also welcomed the second cohort of Quad Fellows through the Institute of International Education, which leads the implementation of the Quad Fellowship. Students from students ASEAN countries will also be included for the first time, it said.

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Summit focuses on education

The Government of Japan is supporting the programme to enable Quad Fellows to study in Japan. The Quad welcomes the generous support of private sector partners for the next cohort of fellows, including Google, the Pratt Foundation, and Western Digital, the declaration read. The Quad Leaders' Summit this year was earlier supposed to be held in India, but President Biden was keen to hold the event in his hometown. The US, Japan, India, and Australia had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

The four-member Quad, or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, advocates upholding a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific. China claims that the grouping aims to contain its rise. The summit this year is a farewell event for both US President Biden and Japan Prime Minister Kishida before they step down from their respective offices. On space, the Quad leaders "recognise the essential contribution of space-related applications and technologies in the Indo-Pacific."

"Our four countries intend to continue delivering Earth Observation data and other space-related applications to assist nations across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen climate early warning systems and better manage the impacts of extreme weather events," the declaration said. Also, India's establishment of a space-based web portal for Mauritius, to support the concept of open science for space-based monitoring of extreme weather events and climate impact was welcomed by the Quad leaders, the declaration said.