Awarding Tele-education Scholarships to Afghan Students

What is the Tele-education Scholarships to Afghan Students programme?

Awarding Tele-education Scholarships to Afghan Students is a programme of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, delivered under the e-VidyaBharti and e-AarogyaBharti (e-VBAB) Network Project. The e-VidyaBharti (tele-education) arm of that project gives Afghan nationals free, fully online access to higher education courses taught by Indian universities.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the programme fee for each scholarship is paid as a scholarship by the Government of India, so the Afghan learner is not charged. It is part of India's long-running development partnership with Afghanistan, and builds on earlier scholarship arrangements by moving delivery online so that students can study from within Afghanistan without needing to travel to India.

Key objectives

• Widen access to Indian higher education for Afghan nationals through online learning.
• Support Afghanistan's human-resource development as part of India's development partnership.
• Use tele-education to reach students who cannot travel abroad to study.

Main features

• Up to 1,000 scholarships a year for Afghan nationals, raised from an original 500.
• Covers online undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses offered by Indian universities.
• The full programme fee is met as a scholarship; the learner pays nothing.
• Delivered through the e-VidyaBharti (iLearn) platform.

Who is eligible for the tele-education scholarships?

You can apply if:

• You are an Afghan national.
• You hold the qualification below the level you are applying for, for example, school completion for an undergraduate course, or a bachelor's degree for a postgraduate course.
• You are recommended by an Indian university or an Indian Mission and approved by the Ministry of External Affairs.
• You can access the online e-VidyaBharti (iLearn) platform to study.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not an Afghan national. Indian students and nationals of other countries are not eligible under this specific programme; Indian students should apply to domestic scholarship schemes instead.
• You do not meet the academic prerequisite for the course level.
• You have not obtained the required recommendation and MEA approval.

Because this is a bilateral development programme, eligibility is defined by nationality and by the recommendation-and-approval route rather than by an open public competition.

What does the scholarship cover?

The scholarship covers the full programme fee of an online undergraduate or postgraduate degree course delivered by an Indian university through the e-VidyaBharti platform. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the programme fee "is being paid as scholarship", and the Ministry explicitly warns that no one should charge the learner a fee.

Up to 1,000 such scholarships are awarded each year. Because delivery is online, the scholarship does not include travel or living costs in India. The student studies from their own location. The exact list of courses and participating universities changes from intake to intake and is published on the e-VidyaBharti (iLearn) portal, so confirm the current offerings there.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the tele-education scholarship

1. Visit the e-VidyaBharti (iLearn) portal at ilearn.gov.in and open the Afghan scholarship section.
2. Register as a learner with your email and personal details, and create your account on the platform.
3. Choose an online undergraduate or postgraduate course offered by a participating Indian university and submit your application with your academic documents.
4. Obtain the required recommendation from an Indian university or Indian Mission; the application is then approved by the Ministry of External Affairs.
5. Once approved, begin the course online through the e-VidyaBharti platform. The programme fee is met as a scholarship, so you pay nothing.

A note on scope and on avoiding fraud

This programme sits within a bilateral relationship and is administered through the Ministry of External Affairs and the e-VidyaBharti platform rather than through an ordinary scholarship application window. Terms — including which universities and courses are available and how recommendations are routed: can change with the state of India-Afghanistan cooperation, so the iLearn portal is the authoritative source for the current intake.

Because the scholarship is free, the Ministry of External Affairs cautions that no agent or middleman should charge you to secure a place. There is no public telephone helpline for the programme; support is provided through the e-VidyaBharti (iLearn) portal itself. Given the narrow, bilateral nature of this programme, it may serve readers better as a section within a wider page on India's foreign scholarships than as a large standalone guide.