Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday announced a grant of five crore rupees to augment the Indian scholarship fund for ethnic Indians in Malaysia.
Dr Singh, who is in Malaysia on a state visit, made the announcement while addressing the Indian community here.
The fund was set up in 1946 by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to assist Malaysian-Indian students. With the new grant, the corpus of the fund will be 7.55 crore rupees.
Malaysian-Indians had requested Indian government to allot some quota for their students.
Singh also announced 20 scholarships for Malaysian students to study traditional system of medicine in India.
Muslim-majority Malaysia`s 27 million people are 25 percent ethnic Chinese and eight per cent ethnic Indians, who are mostly Hindus from Tamil Nadu.
PTI
