Know India Programme For Indian Diaspora Youth

The 19th Know India Programme (KIP) held from 21.12.2011 to 10.01.2012, thirty seven overseas youths of Indian origin from 10 countries including Mauritius, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, South Africa, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Kenya, Israel and Australia. Know India Progamme is organized with the objective of familiarizing Indian Diaspora youth with the developments made by the country and bringing them close to the land of their ancestors. The participants are also taken to a partner state in India to see different dimensions of Indian life and the progress made by the country in various fields e.g. economic, industrial, education, science and technology, communication and information technology and culture. Since inception, 19 states have served as partner states for KIP and the state of Andhra Pradesh have already been covered twice as a partner state.

The KIP is a highly successful programme run by the Ministry and it attracts a large number of overseas youths to participate in it. Wide publicity is given to this programme through Indian Missions/Posts abroad as well as through the local media to enable overseas Indian youths to apply for the same. Nearly 600 overseas youths have participated in this programme so far. The fund allocation for KIP during the last three years is stated below:

2009-10 - Rs. 125 lakh
2010-11 – Rs. 144 lakh
2011-12 - Rs. 160 lakh

Nearly Rs. 3,26,78,370/- (Rupees Three Crore Twenty Six Lakh Seventy Eight Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy) has been spent between 2009 and 2012 ( up to January, 2012).

This information was given by the Minister of Overseas Indian Affair, Shri Vayalar Ravi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

PKM