120 Indian students win Taiwan Govt scholarships worth Rs 17 Crore  

NEW DELHI: Taiwan government has awarded scholarships to 120 Indian students to pursue advance studies in various universities in Taiwan. Of these, 52 Taiwan Scholarship recipients received fully-funded scholarships including 17 for Ph.D. Degree, 31 for Master Degrees and 4 for Bachelor’s degrees. The 68 Huayu (Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship recipients will study in Taiwan’s universities for an intensive language course of 3, 6, or 12 months.

Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) in India held a ceremony on Friday to award Taiwan Scholarships and Huayu Enrichment Scholarships to formally hand over scholarships to them in the presence of their family members in New Delhi. Every year, there are two categories of scholarships provided by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, one is Taiwan Scholarship for degree-seeking and the other is Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (for Mandarin language learning).

Taiwan’s Ambassador Baushuan Ger and Deputy Representative Prof. Mumin Chen, with Education Division’s Director, Peters Chen, gave away scholarships to the students that include 52 Taiwan Scholarship recipients and 68 of Huayu (Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship this year during its annual scholarship awards ceremony.

While addressing the scholarship recipients Ambassador Baushuan Ger said, “Taiwan-India relations have reached a new momentum in terms of educational cooperation and semiconductor industry. As trade relations deepen, more Taiwan companies show great interest in India and are looking at relocating their production bases from China to India which in turn will bring opportunities for Indian students at large. The bilateral trade between India and Taiwan is on an upswing.” He strongly encouraged students to learn Mandarin language so that they can get great job opportunities in Taiwanese companies in India, for example, Foxconn.

Dr. Namrata Hasija, Recipient of the 2014 MOE Taiwan Scholarships & 2019 MOFA Fellowship alumnus was invited to the ceremony and she congratulated all the scholarship awardees this year. She says, “it was a very important milestone for her to go to Taiwan because she was studying Indo-China relations.” She started she was learning Mandarin at the age of 30, all her classmates and even the teachers were younger than her, and she was the oldest in class. “I could learn at that age of 30, it is a very amazing opportunity for all the young people who can start their journey sooner.” She said. “Even students going there to study degree courses shall learn Mandarin there as it will be very beneficial for their career,” she added.

This year, the total awarded amount by the Ministry of Education Taiwan to Indian awardees is about Rs. 17 crores. Recipients from South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal also received scholarships to study for a degree in Taiwan.

This marked the largest amount of scholarship for Indian students from foreign country. Those who successfully received these scholarships represent multiple states of India, such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Delhi. Many of them came with grandparents and parents.

A gratitude speech was delivered by Ms. Wonyophy Awungshi, from Manipur. She received the MOE Huayu Scholarship for one year. She expressed her gratefulness to the Taiwan government for giving her this excellent opportunity to learn Mandarin Language without worrying about the financial aspect.

The Ministry of Education Taiwan encourages Indian students to study in Taiwan. The scholarships provide excellent education opportunities for Indian students to explore better career options. This also gives them a chance to explore Taiwan and its IT development and rich traditional culture.