From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has justified curbs on foreign studies and research on India’s caste conflicts, social disharmony and poverty under the National Oberseas Scholarship (NOS) scheme and said there should be no fuss since many other scholarships are available for their studies in India itself.
It said: “Topics related to India-based research such as Indian culture, heritage, history and social studies can be undertaken better in the top Indian institutes and central universities to have better exposure and learning from the Indian professors having more experience and practical knowledge on the subjects than their counterparts on foreign universities.”
“Moreover, in any case the students pursuing these topics need to spend a large portion of their course period in India for practical research,” the ministry said in a clarification.
The ministry said the slots under NOS are limited to 125 and so if students pursuing the above topics are encouraged to study in India, it would give an opportunity to others wanting to pursue other subjects for which the foreign universities are better equipped. These are given to the students belonging to Scheduled Castes, de-notified nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, landless farm workers and traditional artisan community, whose parents’ annual income is less than Rs 8 lakh.
“Candidates can thus study abroad on more new-age subjects and bring back that knowledge to Indi rather than go to a foreign university to do Masters and PhD on India and its culture, which can be very well learnt in India itself,” the ministry added.
