Japan renews ₹14 crore scholarship programme for Indian government officials for third consecutive year

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has signed a Grant Agreement with India to fund the third cohort of "The Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS)", reaffirming Japan's long-term investment in the officials who will shape India's policy landscape in the decades ahead.

The agreement, valued at approximately Rs 14 crore (JPY 250 million), will sponsor nine Indian government officials to undertake a fully funded two-year master's program at some of Japan's most prestigious universities.

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First introduced in India in 2024, the JDS has quickly become a signature strand of the India-Japan partnership. The scholarship identifies serving officers working in domains central to India's development agenda and places them in graduate program tailored to public policy, engineering, and international cooperation. Overall, nine officers are chosen each year over the four-year span of the initiative - a deliberate design that builds, batch by batch, a growing community of Japan-trained administrators within the Indian government.

Post-completion, the officials return to their posts equipped not only with advanced academic training but with firsthand insight into Japanese governance, institutions, and industry. This expertise can be channeled directly into policy reform, flagship development projects, and the expanding portfolio of India-Japan joint initiatives. In this way, each cohort strengthens both India's administrative capacity and the working relationship between the two governments.

The capacity building program is now entering a phase of visible momentum. The inaugural batch, which arrived in Japan in mid-2025, is midway through its studies, and the second batch takes up admissions this year. Applications for the third cohort will open in mid-2026, with selected scholars beginning their program in mid-2027.

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Host institutions include:

• Graduate School of Public Policy, The University of Tokyo
• Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
• Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University
• Graduate School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University
• Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University

TAKEUCHI Takuro, Chief Representative, JICA India, said: "When the Prime Ministers of India and Japan spoke of bolstering India-Japan people-to-people exchange furthermore, this is exactly the kind of exchange they had in mind. It has been rewarding to watch our first JDS scholars settle into campuses across Japan, and I am confident this third batch will carry that momentum forward. To India's brightest young officials, my message is simple: this scholarship is your gateway to Japan, and your training ground for building a ViksitBharat. I encourage you to apply."

The Grant Agreement was signed by Baldeo Purushartha, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and TAKEUCHI Takuro.