Japan should take steps to attract Indian students by giving them scholarships to pursue higher education and research in the country, Indian educationist Anand Kumar has said.

“It is important to make Japan an education hub for Indian students with a basket of courses, backed by scholarships and other incentives,” Kumar said during a meeting with science advisor to the Japanese Cabinet, Kiyoshi Kurokawa.

“Today, USA, Europe and Australia attract maximum number of students from India. These are students whose parents can afford the cost. But for the vastly talented ones from the poor families, the doors are closed. If these students get a chance, their success stories could make the world stop and take note of what Japan has in store for students,” Kumar said.

Earlier, Kurokawa praised Kumar for his Super 30 programme, which grooms students from the underprivileged sections of society for the prestigious IITs.

Kurokawa, the man behind the conceptualisation of Japanese Global 30 programme, is a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

Anand is on a week-long visit on the invitation of Japanese government to explore the emerging prospects for Indian students in Japan.

In November last year, Yoshino Hiroshi, director of the University of Tokyo of India operation, had called on Anand in Patna and discussed the ‘Global 30’ programme, an initiative to attract foreign students to Japan.

Out of 1.4 lakh foreign students annually coming to Japan, India’s contribution is only 600. Japan wishes to increase the number of foreign students to three lakh by 2020, which can be achieved by raising flow of talented students from India.

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