“The e-student visa will be granted to such foreign nationals, who get an admission in any of the Indian educational institution and who wish to pursue such studies, regular, full-time, courses of undergraduate, post graduation, PhD and such other formal programmes,” said a senior officer, adding that such educational institution should be duly recognised by the statutory and regulatory body in the country.He said that these visas are granted for durations of up to five years, depending on the course length, and can be extended and the holders valid e-student visas can enter India through any of the immigration check posts- airport, land-port and sea port.According to the officials in the MHA the SII portal is a flagship initiative by the Ministry of Education, hosting over 600 partner institutions offering more than 8,000 courses across disciplines such as engineering, management, agriculture, sciences, arts, humanities, law, paramedical sciences (including pharmacy and nursing), and also a few fields like Buddhist Studies and Yoga.Interesting here to note that the Indian higher education system has the capacity to enrol almost 40 million students and thus making it world’s largest. But, according to the government data so far only 50,000 students from other countries are studying in India and this accounts for only about 0.1 percent of the students undertaking higher education in India. India’s share is significantly low compared to China and the US, where five lakh and 10 lakh foreign students respectively are getting higher education.Given the prevailing situation the MHA officials said that the government has made a target of five lakh foreign students coming to India.
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