NEW DELHI, June 30:
Notwithstanding the depressing news for Indian students in Europe and elsewhere, France, the biggest country in Europe, is taking steps to attract more Indian students by providing scholarships worth 1.1 million Euros.
Some 235 meritorious Indian students of IITs and IIMs have been chosen for scholarship, besides offering long term visas for business and work for students graduating from that country.
Ahead of Ambassador of France in India François Richier kick starting the French Scholarship Award Ceremony for students leaving for higher education in France for 2013-2014, Embassy of France in a statement said that about 2600 Indian students pursued 700 courses in English in that country and it wanted the numbers to go up.
Early this year during French President François Hollande’s visit to India, authorities of both countries decided to bolster this dimension of bilateral relationship.
Mr Hollande had also set a target of raising the number of Indian students to France by 50 per cent in the next five years, the statement recalled.
Measures like issuance of visas for Indian students, creation of a ‘France-India’ network as well as increased scholarships offered by the French embassy and its corporate partners were in place to achieve the goal, the Embassy said.
France had decided to considerably ease conditions for obtaining work visa for Indian graduates from French business and engineering schools for extending their stay up to five years for acquiring work and business in that country, it added.
French Embassy was also organising a ‘France-India job opportunities’ network to bring together the Human Resource heads of major French companies in India to promote opportunities.
Over 350 French companies were functioning in India with an investment of about 18 billion dollars employing 2.4 lakh skilled jobs spread across the country, the statement said. (UNI)
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