The number of foreigners coming to India for educational purposes had gone up “significantly” during the current regime at the Centre and the country was becoming a “hub of quality education”, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Thursday.

According to an official statement, the minority affairs minister reiterated the Centre’s commitment towards the educational empowerment of all sections of the society, including the minorities.

The statement also quoted Naqvi as saying that the government had been successful in providing a better atmosphere for quality education in the backward areas of the country.

The minister made these comments during his meeting with a seven-member delegation of a Malaysia-based organisation, PINTA, at the Antyodaya Bhawan here. PINTA works in the field of education in Malaysia.

“The number of students coming to India from other countries for educational activities has increased significantly during the last three years of the (Narendra) Modi government,” the statement quoted Naqvi as saying.

The statement, however, did not reveal the number of foreign students who came to India on educational purposes during the said period.

“The government has also been successful in providing a better atmosphere for quality education in the poor and backward areas of the country,” Naqvi said.

The minister apprised the delegation of various government schemes, which aimed at achieving educational empowerment, and employment-oriented skill development programmes for the minorities such as the ‘3Ts — Teacher, Tiffin and Toilet’, Garib Nawaz skill development programme, Begum Hazrat Mahal girl scholarship etc.
Naqvi said a large number of madrasas had been connected with the ‘3Ts’ programme and included into the modern and mainstream education system, according to the statement.

The PINTA delegation said that like in India, people from different religions and cultures were involved in activities related to education and development in Malaysia.

The delegation lauded the schemes being run by Naqvi’s ministry for the empowerment of minorities, the statement said.