High Commission of India

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

A delegation of eminent academicians, led by Prof. K K Pant and Prof. Nomesh B Bolia from IIT Delhi visited Brunei, to create awareness about the prestigious ASEAN PhD Fellowship Programme and to explore collaboration, joint research and corresponding MoUs for IIT Delhi. Other members of the delegation were Prof. Nitya Nanad Gosvami, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Prof. Arnab Chanda, Centre for Biomedical Engineering (CBME).

On 25th January 2018, the eve of Indian Republic Day, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, in the presence of the leaders of all 10 ASEAN member states, announced 1000 fellowships exclusively for ASEAN citizensto pursue (fully funded by Government of India) PhD programmes at the internationally renowned Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). As mentioned by the Hon’ble External Affairs Minister of India at the programme launched in September 2019, this programme is the largest capacity development programme undertaken by the Government of Indiafor foreign beneficiaries.

IIT Delhi, an institution renowned for its research, innovation and startups, was chosen as the coordinator institution for ASEAN FellowshipProgramme with Prof. Nomesh B Bolia as the National Coordinator.
Highlights of the visit are as follows :-

• Meeting at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) with Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Director, Global Relations and Faculty from Technology Department to present message of the delegation visit, discuss the previous MoUs.
• The IIT delegation also met Director, International and Public Relations at Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) and discussed the research opportunities for Brunei students at IITs.
• The delegation then met Mr. Julaihi Bin Mohamad, Head of Scholarship Department, Ministry of Education (MOE), with other officers from MOE related to higher education and international affairs to talk about the opportunities and initiative taken by Indian government for ASEAN countries. They also discussed the higher education scenario in both the countries and how they can collaborate in a mutually beneficial arrangement.
• The delegation also got a chance to interact with Haji Sammaji Bin Adam, Director of Public Relation & International Centre, Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University (UNISSA) regarding the ASEAN Fellowship Programme and IIT Delhi.