NEW DELHI, Sept 11 – Union Minister for Human Resources Development,
Smriti Irani, today announced that the UGC has launched a special scholarship
scheme – ‘Ishan Uday’ – for students of the Northeast from the academic session
2014-15.
Addressing a press conference, Irani said that
the scheme envisages grant of 10,000 scholarships to students from the
Northeast, whose parental income is below Rs 4.5 lakh per annum and they would
be provided scholarship ranging from Rs 3,500 to 5,000 per month for studying
at undergraduate level in colleges and universities of the country.
‘Ishan Vikas’ is a comprehensive plan to bring
selected students from the school and college levels from the north-eastern
States into close contact with the IITs, NITs and IISERs during their vacation
periods.
A typical visit is envisaged for a period of 10
days to one of these institutions, in the form of either an exposure or an
internship programme, she said.
Each school will send one teacher to accompany a
group of about 32 students of class IX and X. The college students would be
organised in two groups in summer and in winter, each consisting of 32
students. About 2016 college students and 504 teachers from NE will be visiting
premier institutes like IIT, NIT and IISERs in an academic year.
The summer internship for students from the
engineering colleges with stipends and travel will be taken up. From 25
institutions, about 250 students will be visiting 16 IITs and six NITs (to start
with, six NITs are being considered) per year, the Minister added.
