The Dutch Ambassador to India, Marten van den Berg, has launched this year’s Orange Tulip Scholarship (OTS) to India. He formally inaugurated the programme during Bengaluru Tech Summit held on 30 November 2018 at Bangalore Palace. “We are happy to formally launch the 2019-20 Orange Tulip Scholarships for Indian students to study in Holland. OTS was piloted in 2017 under Nuffic Netherlands Education Support Office (NESO) India. This year, 19 Dutch universities are offering around 55 scholarships in bachelors and master courses totalling a value of €4,57,290 INR 3.65 crore approx,” Ambassador Marten van den Berg said.
“India will be home to the world’s youngest workforce by 2027, according to Bloomberg. Netherlands is the second most innovative country and the fourth most competitive economy in the world as per World Economic Forum rankings of 2018,” he added. “Harnessing the young talent, and innovative energy from both our nations, we look forward to create intersections for innovative solutions to global problems through industry-academia collaboration,” he said.
Many Dutch universities are offering reduced tuition fees for various interesting courses, such as Museology (study of museums), Medical and Pharma Drug Innovation, and International Leisure.
The scholarship programme is expected to increase the Indian student count to the Netherlands.
“The Netherlands has a deficit of thousands of engineers. With 5,00,000 engineering pass outs from India and many from Bengaluru, there is immense opportunity to bridge the engineering talent gap in Holland,” says Gert Heijkoop, Consul General of the Kingdom Of the Netherlands in Bengaluru.
OTS was launched in China in 2008 and in successive years in Mexico, Korea, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia. It piloted in 2017 in India with Indian students availing 24 scholarships worth € 541191 or INR 4.1 crore approximately.
Nuffic Neso co-curates peer learning workshop with IIIT Bangalore on Cybersecurity—Increasing incidents of cyber attacks and data protection efforts are underway globally. According to NASSCOM, an IT industry trade body report, this is expected to create $35 billion revenue and employment opportunities for about 1 million Indian professionals by 2025.
The scholarship will surely attract more Euro-seeking Indian students.