Philippine Delegates to Embark in 10-Day Indian Exchange Program

Twenty-five Filipino students represent the Philippines in the annual ASEAN-India Students Exchange Program (AISEP) in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Agra, and New Delhi, India, from Jan. 14 to 28, 2018.

AISEP is an annual gathering of around 250 students from the ASEAN region, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam for a 10-day excursion in some parts of India. The tour includes academic, cultural, economic, leadership, and historical visits in India that focuses on building closer entrepreneurial partnerships among the participants, highlighting academic and business exchanges in various sectors.

Since the program inception in 2007 by then Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, eight batches from various ASEAN member-countries have already been granted as beneficiaries. Dr. Singh believed that such a program becomes a familiarization tool to build greater economic and cultural understanding between the two dynamic Asian regions: India and ASEAN. The program is also expected to promote international goodwill and cultural understanding among promising young individuals, developing their potentials as future leaders in government, business, and civil society.

This year, 25 Filipino masters and Ph.D. students  from various sectors representing Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, have been selected to participate and represent the country for the ninth installment of the program.

The Philippine delegates are as follows: Maleha Abdula, Yonelyn Jean Abuso, Samantha Chico, Ana Dominique Consulta, Cyrene Ela, Darlene Estrada, Ivy Galvan, Gaea Miranda, Angeli Nuque, Christy Palma, Cady Perez, Julie Prado, Aldren Alferez, Marc Batoy, Hansel Burce, Karl Diamante, Joshua Eleaar Domen, Zyrael Fortes, Gerald Macaraig, Lemuel Magaling, Jimfred Mariano, Ian Necosia, Paul Ongcoy, Sinforiano Pelongo Jr., and Joseph Tinao.

AISEP is organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs together with the National Youth Commission of the Philippines as the facilitating body in the country.

A Master of Information Systems student from the University of the Philippines Open University, Joshua Domen, 25, is a technical support engineer of a technology company. He is one of the participants to this year’s AISEP.