31 Jul 2024

The Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) has not received any scholarships from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) during the 2023/24 financial year.

This was said by Assistant Minister for State President, Ms Boitumelo Gofhamodimo in response to a parliamentary question on Tuesday.

Ms Gofhamodimo said there were therefore no applications and no successful applicants as a result of no scholarship received.

She told Parliament that government through the DPSM received the ICCR scholarships from the Indian Government through Indian High Commission as and when they were available.

She stated that the scholarships targeted undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses at various universities in India.

“Once scholarships are received, DPSM distributes them accordingly to Ministries, Independent Departments and Agencies (MDAs) based on their relevance to MDAs mandate not to the constituencies,” she said.

She said the conditions for scholarships awarded to DPSM excluded applicants with Junior Certificate qualifications since the minimum requirement for the scholarship was senior secondary school leaving certificate (BGCSE or O’Level).

“It should be noted that DPSM only handles scholarships for the public service employees. The application processing is done through the Alumni Account to Account (A2A) portal, administered by the Indian Embassy,” she added.

Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Christian Greeff had asked the minister to update Parliament on the ICCR scholarships offered by the Indian High Commission for the year 2023/24 and also state the number of applicants distributed across the 57 constituencies, among others. Ends