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.

How to check your application status

There is no separate tracking number or SMS system for this scholarship, so status checks run through the same two channels used for the application itself.

• Log in to the e-VidyaBharti (iLearn) portal at ilearn.gov.in with the credentials you used to register. Your learner dashboard shows whether your submitted course application is still pending recommendation, has been forwarded for Ministry of External Affairs approval, or has been approved and moved to enrolment.
• Follow up with the Indian university or Indian Mission that is handling your recommendation. Since the recommendation step is manual and routed through the university or the Mission before it reaches the MEA, they are usually able to tell you where your file stands faster than the portal dashboard, which may not update in real time.
• Watch your registered email. Confirmation of recommendation, MEA approval, and course start instructions are typically sent to the email address you registered with on iLearn, so check that inbox (including spam) regularly during the application window and after it closes.
• There is no dedicated telephone helpline for this programme. If the portal shows no movement for several weeks after your recommendation was submitted, the Indian Mission or university contact you applied through is the right party to approach, not a call centre, since the Ministry of External Affairs does not publish a phone number for this scheme.

Because the intake window is short (roughly two weeks each year, based on the 2026-27 cycle), checking status promptly after the window closes matters more than for schemes with rolling admissions.

Common reasons for rejection

• Nationality not established. Applications without clear proof of Afghan citizenship, such as a passport or national identity document, are turned down at the first screening. Fix: submit a valid, current Afghan passport or national ID before applying, not after.
• Academic prerequisite not met. The scholarship requires the qualification one level below the course applied for (school completion for undergraduate courses, a bachelor's degree for postgraduate courses). Applying for a postgraduate course without a recognised bachelor's degree, or for an undergraduate course without completed schooling, is a common rejection point. Fix: apply for the course level that matches your actual completed qualification, and attach the certificate for that qualification, not a certificate in progress.
• Missing recommendation. This scholarship is not an open public competition; it depends on being recommended by an Indian university or an Indian Mission. An application submitted on iLearn without securing this recommendation first, or with a recommendation from a body other than an Indian university or Indian Mission, will stall or be rejected. Fix: contact an Indian Mission in Afghanistan (or the Indian university you are applying to) before or immediately after registering on iLearn, and confirm they will route your recommendation.
• Application submitted outside the intake window. The programme opens for a short annual window (about two weeks in recent cycles) rather than accepting applications year-round. Registering or submitting course choices after the window closes results in the application not being considered for that year's cohort. Fix: watch the iLearn portal for the announcement of the next intake dates and apply within the stated window.
• Incomplete or mismatched documentation. Academic certificates that do not match the name or details on the nationality document, or an application submitted without the required academic certificates attached, are sent back or rejected rather than processed. Fix: make sure the name, date of birth, and other identifying details are consistent across your nationality proof and academic documents before submitting.
• Paying an agent or middleman. The Ministry of External Affairs has specifically cautioned that no one should be charged a fee to secure a scholarship seat. Applications routed through unofficial agents who demand payment are not a recognised path and can result in the applicant being defrauded rather than admitted. Fix: apply only through the official iLearn portal and through a genuine Indian university or Indian Mission, and treat any request for payment as a red flag.