A new project by India aims to provide fifty $500,000 Quad scholarships to students across the Indo-Pacific region.

Following the fourth in-person Quad Summit, the Wilmington Declaration said that these scholarships would allow students to enroll in a four-year undergraduate engineering program at a technical university financed by the Government of India.

"India is pleased to announce a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships, worth $500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific to pursue a 4-year undergraduate engineering programme at a Government of India-funded technical institution," the declaration read.

“We applaud the expansion of the Quad Infrastructure Fellowships to more than 2,200 experts, and note that Quad partners have already provided well over 1,300 fellowships since the initiative was announced at last year’s Summit. We also appreciate the workshop organised by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in India, working to empower partners across the Indo-Pacific to strengthen power sector resilience,” it added.

The Quad Leaders' Summit was held on Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware, the hometown of President Joe Biden. Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan, Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Narendra Modi of India were there. This year's Quad Leaders' Summit was originally scheduled to take place in India, but President Biden was eager to host it in his hometown.

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which consists of four members, promotes the preservation of an open, inclusive, and free Indo-Pacific region.

"Investments in cable projects by Quad partners will help support all Pacific island countries in achieving primary telecommunication cable connectivity by the end of 2025. Since the last Quad Leaders’ Summit, Quad partners have committed over $140 million to undersea cable builds in the Pacific, alongside contributions from other likeminded partners. Complementing these investments in new undersea cables, India has commissioned a feasibility study to examine expansion of undersea cable maintenance and repair capabilities in the Indo-Pacific," the declaration further mentioned.

(With Inputs From PTI)