Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 11 (IANS) French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont Friday said his country was looking forward to getting more students from India to study there.
“We want to triple the number of students from India in the next three years,” Bonnafont told reporters here.

The French ambassador arrived in the state capital for the inaugural ceremony of the 14th International Film Festival of Kerala that opened Friday evening.

Earlier, Pierre Fournier, consul general of France in Puducherry, said that currently there are only 1600 students from India in France.

“We want to raise that number to 5,000 in the next three years. The areas that Indian students should look forward is in scientific studies, engineering and technical studies. This is because in these areas there is no requirement that French is known. Lot of scholarships are also available,” said Fournier.

He said the cost of education in France is cheaper compared to other European countries.

“The cost of education for post graduation and for doctoral studies is around Rs.50,000 a month which would cover everything. These days, students can work around 15 hours a week also,” said Fournier.

Bonnafont also noted that French nationals comprise the second largest number of tourists to Kerala.

“The recent Incredible India campaign was a huge success in France and Kerala should see that a bit more advertisement is done to improve the state’s marketing as a tourist destination,” said Bonnafont.

With regards to investment in India, he said talks are progressing fast between Areva (ranked first in the global nuclear power industry) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to set up two 1,600 MW nuclear reactors in south Maharashtra.

“The agreement is likely to be inked early next year and once that is done, four more nuclear reactors would be built at the same place,” said Bonnafont.