GAP FOREIGN SCHOLARSHIPS REVEAL

NDIA is one of only seven countries in the world that receive more than $20 million in educational scholarships from foreign countries, according to Unesco’s latest global statistical report.

- AMRUTH G KUMAR

The others are Pakistan, China, Moldova, Algeria, Syria and Morocco. The Official Development Assistance scholarships given out by some of the OECD countries include support for pursuing higher education and research. This assistance reaches the beneficiaries as stipends, tuition fee waivers and allowances.

The apparent aim of ODA is to promote international relations and human capital development among the recipient nations. The tacit intentions include deepening the rich nations’ soft power and epistemological dominance. We must ask why only India and Pakistan are in the $20-million club among the Central and South Asian countries. The report indicates that the global average is $6 million.

What does the outlier figure for India indicate? Three arguments can be considered: merit of Indian students and researchers in global academia, lack of domestic support to retain our best brains and academic influence of developed countries.

The arguments are best argued with data. According to the Union ministry of education, India contributed 5.2 percent of global research publications in 2024. Among the G20 nations, India ranked third in research output behind China and the US. On the other hand, the World Bank reminds us that India’s investment in research and development was just 0.65 percent of the GDP in 2020. This is significantly lower than in the US (8.45 percent), Japan (3.44 percent), Germany (3.15 percent) and South Korea (4.94 percent).