Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India has been organizing Know India Programmes (KIPs) for the Indian Diaspora youth who have never visited India before. The purpose of conducting KIP is to engage and make the students and young professionals of Indian Diaspora feel a sense of connect with their ancestral roots, to be motivated and inspired by the transformational changes taking place in India and to give them an exposure to various facets of contemporary India’s forms of art, heritage and culture.
Since the current KIP allows participation of young Diaspora representing 3rd generation onwards who have never visited India before and in view of the growing popularity of KIPs, Ministry has been receiving requests from various Indian Associations for organisation of KIPs with no such conditions attached to enable more PIO Diaspora youth to be part of KIP.
In order to meet the aspirations of the Diaspora community, it has been decided to arrange a Know India Programme on Self Financing Basis on the following terms: i) The KIP will be available to PIO/OCI card holders in the age group 18-35 years irrespective of their generation and previous visits to India. ii) The Programme will be organised by the same Event Management Company (EMC) that is approved for the regular KIPs and at the same rates and conditions.
The participants will have to bear the total cost of international and domestic travel, boarding and lodging, management fee of the EMC, international medical insurance, etc. iii) Air-tickets to/ from India and international medical insurance will be purchased directly by the participants. The logistic arrangements in India will be made by the EMC on payment basis and the money will be payable directly by the participants to the EMC. iv) Ministry will identify one or two state(s) to be visited by the participants, draw a structured programme schedule in coordination with the EMC and coordinate with the organisations concerned for waiver of entrance fee to various historic sites. v) Other conditions like provision of gratis visa by the Mission, orientation programme at FSI, deployment of a liaison officer with the KIP group, etc. will remain the same as for a regular KIP.
The portal www.kip.gov.in enables Indian-origin youth to apply online for KIP programmes. In the Application Form, the applicant should indicate his preference for each KIP, in the order or priority. Ministry will attempt to allot the first preference of each applicant to the extent possible. For more details please visit www.kip.gov.in