India holds the first-ever INDSAT exam for foreign students under ‘Study in India’ programme

The Tatva Staff July 24, 2020

istock 483322025 — Teenage African American male wearing a plaid button-up shirt sitting at a desk in class. He is writing in a notebook on his desk using a pencil. Around him are his classmates, also writing on their papers. They are all concentrating on their own work.

Human Resource Development Ministry conducted the first ever Indian Scholastic Assessment Test (Ind-SAT) 2020 under ‘Study in India’ programme of Government of India. 5 thousand candidates from Nepal, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sri-Lanka, Kenya, Zambia, Indonesia and Mauritius appeared for the exam conducted in the proctored internet mode by the National Testing Agency. EdCIL (India) Limited, a PSU under MHRD and the implementing agency of SII handled the registrations and other aspects of the examination.

Foreign students can get scholarships and admissions for studying in select Indian universities under the Study in India programme. The exam is designed to gauge the scholastic capability of students applying to study in India. The Ind-SAT scores will serve as a criterion to shortlist the meritorious students for the allocation of scholarships for under-graduate as well as post-graduate programmes under ‘Study in India’ programme.

The Finance Minister, as part of the budget speech this year, had announced that the Ind-SAT exam is proposed to be held in Asian and African countries, for benchmarking foreign candidates who receive scholarships for studying in Indian higher education centers. The exam was held in 15 countries on a pilot basis this year. There are plans to extend this to other countries in the future.

The Study in India is a programme of MHRD under which foreign students come to study in 116 select higher education institutions in India for under-graduate and post-graduate programmes. The selection of the students is based on their merit in the class 12 school leaving exam.

About top 2000 students are given scholarships, while some others are given fee discounts by the institutions. Around 780 students had taken admission under the programme during its first year – 2018-19. In the second year this number rose to about 3200.