CM fellowship programme has attracted 'stellar response': Delhi govt

The Chief Minister's Urban Leaders Fellowship programme has attracted "stellar global response" with nearly 6,000 applications received in three week, the Delhi government said Monday.

In a statement, the government said applicants include graduates from leading foreign and Indian universities.

"The Chief Minister's Urban Leaders Fellowship programme has attracted stellar global response. In the three weeks of application window which ended last Sunday. 5,592 applications were received," it stated.

The fellowship programme, launched on October 13, seeks to attract young leaders from across the country to work with it for two years on addressing some of the most pressing urban challenges, the statement said.

A total of 3,824 applications were received from 92 of the top 100 Indian universities as per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2018, it stated.

This includes over 300 applications from IITs and several from IISc Bangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, IIM Kolkata and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the statement stated.

It said among the foreign universities, close to 200 applications were received from 49 of the top 100 global universities as per Times Higher Education rankings.

"Around 30 applications were received from the London School of Economics and Political Science and several more from other top global universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Columbia and NUS Singapore," the statement stated.

"We are very excited but not surprised to see the kind of response this fellowship scheme has attracted.

"This is a testimony to how young professionals see the transformative work of the Delhi government in the past three and a half years, and how eager they are to join this journey of change," the statement quoted Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as saying.