'People in eastern India lack awareness about US scholarships'

'People in eastern India lack awareness about US scholarships'
Most people in eastern India are unaware of the existing US scholarships, and hence they are lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of getting grants, a US education official said Friday.
"Eastern India is lagging behind compared to the rest of the country in terms of applying for scholarships to US...and this is not because, it lacks merit, but due to unawareness," Sunrit Mullick, regional officer of United States-India Educational Foundation (USEFI), Kolkata, told reporters at a press conference at American Center here. "To solve this problem, we are stressing to promote 'Fulbright-Jawaharlal Nehru Scholarships and Grants' in this part of India, including West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Manipur," he added. Mullick said, as per the new agreement of the Fulbright Scholarships signed by US Ambassador David C. Mulford and India's Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on July 4, 2008, both countries are implementing the programme as full partners. "That means, now more students from India can apply for this scholarship every year. In fact, the number of students going to the US has been almost doubled," he said, noting that there were only 16 students from the eastern region out of the 113 students selected for scholarship across India for the year 2009-10.