The Indian High Commission in Dhaka hosted a get-together to bid farewell and wish success to Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholars Thursday at the chancery premises.

Around 65 awardees, representing the selected scholars, attended the event.

Nearly 300 scholars, selected from across Bangladesh for ICCR scholarship for higher studies in prestigious educational institutions in India, include 170 students from Dhaka, Chattogram (32), Rajshahi (22), Sylhet (20), and Khulna (16).

Engineering courses attracted the maximum number of participants, followed by sciences, social sciences and dance and culture. Of the successful candidates, around 74% were men, and 26% were women.

These students will now study at premier educational institutes in different regions of India.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram K Doraiswami interacted with the ICCR batch of 2021-22 during the event. He also narrated anecdotes from his professional experience to encourage students to adapt to their new life in a familiar, yet foreign country.

ICCR alumni from different walks of life in Bangladesh shared their experiences of studying in India and offered their guidance, advice and good wishes to the younger generation of scholars.

ICCR is a flagship programme of the Indian government for meritorious Bangladeshi nationals to pursue various courses in India at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels. Over the years, more than 4,000 Bangladeshi nationals have availed these scholarships to study at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institutes of Technology (NIT), Delhi University, JNU, National Law School, Rabindra Bharati University, and others.

Some of the famous ICCR alumni include well-known Rabindra Sangeet exponent Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya, Vice-Chancellor Dalem Chandra Barman, Dean of Fine Arts of Dhaka University Professor Nisar Hossain, and cartoonist Shishir Bhattacharjee.