India’s HRD (Human Resources Development) Ministry is launching short-term educational courses in Indic Subjects like Yoga, Indian history and culture and languages like Sanskrit and Urdu to get international students and increase the reputation of Indian universities.

The 'Study in India' programme, launched earlier this year by the Modi government, plans to increase India’s foreign student enrolment thereby improving the global standing and ranking of Indian educational institutions.

India has only about 300-400 Western country students, as reported by New Indian Express. The government aims to take the number of foreign students to 2 lakh by 2023.

A senior official in the ministry said that previously they were planning to target only 30 focus countries in African, West Asian and South East Asian countries but now they are planning to offer courses to students of Europe and America also.

The official said that the foreign students could come to do those courses that add value instead of doing long-term ones. The government will launch a publicity blitzkrieg worth Rs 150 crore in the aforementioned countries.

Another official says that an analysis done recently showed interest from international students to know more about different aspects of Indian culture like Yoga. He says that they would ask the universities to design four to six-week short-term courses in these subjects.

As per the All India Survey on Higher Education, international students come to India from 162 countries from across the globe, most of them, about 62 per cent are from SAARC, ASEAN and African countries.

European students

Get Swarajya in your inbox.