Indian students in Germany need not pay to study: Envoy

October 22, 2012

india_students_in_germany


New Delhi, October 22: Germany, a hub of quality scientific research and innovation, is keen to attract the brightest Indian minds for further studies and research and has as an incentive made it easier for students to stay over and work, the country's envoy has said. Another incentive for students is that German universities don't charge any fees.

"In Germany you don't pay to study in the universities," Michael Steiner, Germany's envoy to India, told IANS in an interview.

The students only have to pay for their board and lodging, he added.
There are at present 6,000 Indian students in Germany, and the country is eager to attract more, he said.


"Earlier, students who wanted to stay over could not, and this was a problem. This year, we have facilitated that students keen to stay over and work can do so," Mr Steiner said. This would be done on the basis of specific work permits.

And, to give a fillip to Indo-German scientific and technological cooperation, Germany is setting up an institute in Delhi to facilitate the exchange of science and innovation, Mr Steiner said, describing it as "one of the defining pillars of our bilateral relations".

The German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH), New Delhi, coming up on Oct 27 near the German embassy here, will help Indian students wanting to go to Germany and vice versa, as well as facilitate bilateral research projects, he said.


The DWIH "will be part of the Ivy League from our perspective", he said.

The ambassador does not foresee language to be a barrier for Indian students as German universities now offer courses in English, he said.

"But it is an enrichment to learn the German language... And it has been observed that Indians are good at learning German," Mr Steiner said.

The DWIH will act like a hub for young talents and a house for scientific innovation, which is one of Germany's strengths, said the ambassador.

Among the 14 universities and member institutions of the DWIH are the well-known Heidelberg University, the Max Planck Society and the University of Cologne.

"The DWIH is mainly an address for facilitating study in Germany," he said, adding that there was an increase of 20 percent in the number of Indian students going to Germany in 2011 from the previous year.

"This is encouraging, but we expect a further increase," he said.

The DWIH is one of the five set up by Germany across the world, with the others in Sao Paolo (Brazil), Moscow (Russia), New York (USA) and Tokyo (Japan)

To a question on how much a student would have to spend to stay in Germany, Mr Steiner said it depends on the city.

"We have very good universities in small cities. It all depends on where the student wants to go," he said, adding that staying in Berlin would be relatively cheaper than Munich.

According to a study by the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, more than 53,000 Indians went abroad in 2000 for a degree and at the end of the decade, the count shot up to 190,000.

The US is the top country having most number of Indian students, with the UK a close second. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of Indian students in Europe increased from 3,348 to 51,556, with the UK seeing a rise from 3,962 to 36,105.

Mr Steiner was full of praise for India's excellence in the field of IT and German companies' collaboration with Indian firms.

"I have spoken to Infosys Germany and found them pretty impressive," he said.

Infosys is in collaboration with German IT major SAP, while Wipro has tied up with Siemens.



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News Network
April 11,2020

Washington, Apr 11: China is considered a developing country, make the United States too a developing one, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, alleging that Beijing has taken advantage of his country.

"China has been unbelievably taken advantage of us and other countries. You know, for instance, they are considered a developing nation. I said well then make us a developing nation too,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

The president was responding to a question on China.

“They get big advantages because they are a developing nation. India, a developing nation. The United States is a big developed nation. Well, we have plenty of development to do,” he said.

Reiterating that United States was taken advantage of by the World Trade Organization, Trump said the Chinese economy started booming after it joined WTO with the help of the US.

“If you look at the history of China, it was only since they went into the WTO that they became a rocket ship with their economy. They were flatlined for years and years,” he said.

“Frankly, for many, many decades. And it was only when they came into the WTO that they became a rocket ship because they took advantage of all -- I'm not even blaming them. I'm saying how stupid were the people that stood here and allowed it to happen,” he said.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click  here

The Trump Administration will now allow that to happen, he said.

“If they don't treat us fairly, will leave. But now we're starting to win cases,” he said.

Alleging that China has taken advantage of the United States for 30 years, he said, China has taken advantage of the US through WTO and using rules that are unfair to the United States.

"They should have never been allowed it, this should have never been allowed to happen", he added.

“When China joined and was allowed to join under those circumstances the WTO, that was a very bad day for the United States because they have rules and regulations that were far different and far easier than our rules and regulations,” he said.

“Plus. They took advantage of them down to the last. China took advantage of them like few people would even think to take advantage of them and again they are considered right a developing nation,” he added.

The United States, he rued, is not considered a developing nation.

“The were given advantages (for being a developing nation). For many years China has ripped off the United States. Then I came along and right now, as you know, China is paying 25 percent," said Trump, adding that the US is now gaining "billions and billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China”.

The US is not paying, he asserted.

“Not every country is China but China would devalue their currency and they would also pour out money and they essentially were paying most of those tariffs not us,” he said.

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News Network
June 3,2020

Islamabad, Jun 3: Pakistan has reported a record 4,132 fresh cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 80,463, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The Ministry of National Health and Services said the new infections were detected after conducting a maximum of 17,370 tests in a day.

Of the total cases, Sindh has so far detected 31,086 patients of the coronavirus, Punjab 29,489, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 10,897, Balochistan 4,747, Islamabad 3,188, Gilgit-Baltistan 779 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir reported 289 patients of the viral disease.

"In total 67 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of deaths to 1,688. Another 28,923 people have fully recovered from the disease," the ministry said in a statement.

The authorities have so far carried out 595,344 tests in the country.

Officials said that Pakistan has more than 100 labs that can conduct over 30,000 tests per day and the number of daily tests will be gradually increased to the maximum level.

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Agencies
July 3,2020

The dollar's dominance will slowly melt away over the coming year on weakening global demand and a sombre U.S. economic outlook, according to a Reuters poll of currency forecasters whose views depend on there being no second coronavirus shock.

Despite fears a surge in new Covid-19 cases would delay economies reopening and stymie a tentative recovery, world stocks have rallied - with the S&P 500 finishing higher in June, marking its biggest quarterly percentage gain since the height of the technology boom in 1998.

Caught between bets in favour of riskier investments, weak U.S. economic prospects as well as an easing in the thirst for dollars after the Federal Reserve flooded markets with liquidity, the greenback fell nearly 1.0 per cent last month. It was its worst monthly performance since December.

While there was a dire prognosis from the top U.S. medical expert on the coronavirus' spread, the June 25-July 1 poll of over 70 analysts showed weak dollar projections as Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Monday reiterated the economic outlook for the world's largest economy was uncertain.

"The dollar rises in two instances: when you see risk off or when there is a situation where the U.S. is leading the global recovery, and we don't think that's going to be the case anytime soon," said Gavin Friend, senior FX strategist at NAB Group in London.

"The U.S. is playing fast and loose with the virus, and chronologically they're behind the rest of the world."

Currency speculators, who had built up trades against the dollar to the highest in two years during May, increased their out-of-favour dollar bets further last week, the latest positioning data showed.

About 80 per cent of analysts, 53 of 66, said the likely path for the dollar over the next six months was to trade around current levels, alternating between slight gains and losses in a range. That suggests the greenback may be at a crucial crossroad as more currency strategists have turned bearish.

But more than 90 per cent, or 63 of 68, said a second shock from the pandemic would push the dollar higher. Five said it would push the U.S. currency lower.

Much will also depend on debt servicing and repayments by Asian, European and other international borrowers in U.S. dollars.

While an early shortage of dollars in March from the pandemic's first shock pushed the Fed to open currency swap lines with major central banks, international funding strains have eased significantly since. In recent weeks, usage of the facility has reduced dramatically.

That trend is expected to continue over the next six months with major central banks' usage of swap lines to "stay around current levels", according to 32 of 46 analysts. While 13 predicted a sharp drop, only one respondent said use of them would "rise sharply".

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against six other major currencies, has slipped over 5 per cent since touching a more than three-year high in March.

When asked which currencies would perform better against the dollar by end-December, a touch over half of 49 respondents said major developed market ones, with the remaining almost split between commodity-linked and emerging market currencies.

"The dollar is so overvalued, and has been overvalued for a long time, it's time now for it to come back down again, as we head towards the (U.S.) election," added NAB's Friend.

Over the last quarter, the euro has staged a 1.8 per cent comeback after falling by a similar margin during the first three months of the year. For the month of June, the euro was up 1.2 per cent against the dollar.

The single currency was now expected to gain about 2.5 per cent to trade at $1.15 in a year from around $1.12 on Wednesday, slightly stronger than $1.14 predicted last month. While those findings are similar to what analysts have been predicting for nearly two years, there was a clear shift in their outlook for the euro, with the range of forecasts showing higher highs and higher lows from last month.

"In comparison to even a month or two ago, the outlook in Europe has improved significantly," said Lee Hardman, currency strategist at MUFG.

"I think that makes the euro look relatively more attractive and cheap against the likes of the dollar. We're not arguing strongly for the euro to surge higher, we're just saying, after the weakness we have seen in recent years, there is the potential for that weakness to start to reverse."

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