NRI at campus: PM ready, UGC sluggish, MEA lost

If you thought that NRI children would be swarming prestigious campuses in the country and IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and colleges like St Stephens&#...

If you thought that NRI children would be swarming prestigious campuses in the country and IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and colleges like St Stephens’ will see more NRI admissions this year, you will have to wait longer. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has no clue so far on what is being done.

Even as MEA sources confirmed that PM Vajpayee is likely to announce the reservation of 500 seats for NRI children on January 9, the inaugural day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, nothing concrete has come from the government so far.

The MEA only seems to have sketchy information on the break-up of the 500 seats to be reserved — 150 for engineering and technical courses and 350 for other courses to be identified by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

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‘‘The process has started and will be finalised soon’’ was all that MEA officials said. The government has no clue which institutes will cater to this demand. Even the 350 seats to be reserved for other courses has not yet been chalked out. The UGC is supposed to come up with a list of courses and the institutes offering them. An MEA official said: ‘‘The courses have been scheduled only for the next session, therefore no details are available.’’ This means that NRI students will be able to seek admission only in 2004.

The idea of offering education to NRI children came as a recommendation from the high-level committee on the Indian diaspora appointed by the MEA in 2001. Headed by Rajya Sabha MP L.M. Singhvi, the report, on January 8, 2002, recommended that NRI children be encouraged to join Indian universities and institutes to popularise Indian education abroad and get NRIs to participate back home.

Sources said the scheme specially looked at NRIs in the Gulf since they are ‘‘important contributors to India’s economy’’.

The police said the trio from Chandigarh — Rohan (21), Sumit (22), and Mohit (19) — were dhol players by profession and had procured the weapons due to an old rivalry with local residents.

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