Internship Policy Of Indian Council For Cultural Relations (ICCR)(IPICCR)

Overview

About IPICCR

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations engages a maximum of 15 interns in a year, and every one of them arrives the same way: a filled proforma and a CV, emailed to the Deputy Director General (Administration) at Azad Bhavan (ICCR Internship Policy). The Council runs no application portal for it, and the policy treats selection as a rolling exercise rather than an annual window. The policy is four pages long, and almost everything it settles, it settles for the whole year.

ICCR is an autonomous body under the Ministry of External Affairs rather than a wing inside it. It was set up in 1950 under what was then the Education Ministry, and jurisdiction moved to the Ministry of External Affairs on 22 April 1970 after a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Affairs (ICCR history). That status is the reason this internship runs on a policy document ICCR wrote for itself: the offer, the honorarium and the certificate all come from the Council.

An intern is attached to one of ICCR's Divisions. At headquarters the attachment also includes a briefing session with the Director General, the Deputy Directors General and the Heads of the various Divisions, and the fields of work the policy names are the Council's own output: creative writing, cultural mapping, technology upgradation in EGIT, building a module for the performing and visual arts, the historical cultural linkages of India with other countries, and the use of social media in cultural diplomacy (ICCR Internship Policy). Placements are at New Delhi or at the regional offices in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmadabad and Hyderabad.

The policy is blunt about what the attachment is not. A one-line paragraph sits between the eligibility rules and the intake number, disclaiming both a job at the Council and any assurance of one. The Council's annual report for 2021-2022 records the first round as completed at headquarters and the regional offices, with the internship certificate awarded to those who finished (ICCR Annual Report 2021-2022).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No month of the year is reserved for this intake. The policy calls the selection an ongoing process taking into account the requirements of ICCR, so the intake is not pinned to a summer or a winter window, and the single date it does fix is 31 December of the internship year, the reference point for the age ceiling (ICCR Internship Policy).

Rounds are advertised when the Council wants them. Its announcements archive lists "Advertisement for Internship in ICCR" with a date of announcement of 13/03/2025 and an expiry date of 06/04/2025 (ICCR announcements archive), and the notice that opened the very first batch went out in April 2021 for a batch beginning that May (Internship at ICCR notice). Watching the announcements page is the only reliable way to catch the next one.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Indian citizenship is the first filter, and it is the one that catches people who know ICCR through its scholarships. After that the policy asks for graduation in a defined band of subjects, running from humanities and journalism through museology and fine arts, an age of not more than 25 years as on 31 December of the year of the internship, and an excellent academic track record, preferably from a recognised university in India (ICCR Internship Policy).

Two absences matter as much as the conditions. The policy sets no minimum percentage and no year-of-study rule, and the ceiling it does set is an age rather than a stage, so a graduate who has been out of college for a while is still inside it while a research scholar past 25 is not (ICCR Internship Policy). It also does not require current enrolment anywhere, though a candidate who would be interning during coursework has to bring a supervisor's permission.

What decides the shortlist is a single figure. Candidates with the highest marks are the ones most likely to be called for the personal interview, and the merit list at that point is drawn on the marks obtained in graduation (ICCR Internship Policy). Research scholars with a formal background in international relations and soft power projection are given preference on top of that, depending on what the Council needs that year.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The one exclusion in the policy is self-inflicted: a person who has already opted out of the programme is barred from applying again. It bites at two moments. A selected candidate who turns the offer down is out of future internships, and the next name on the merit list takes the place. So is an intern who walks away part way through, which the policy permits on one month's notice (ICCR Internship Policy).

Nothing else shuts a candidate out. A student at a university outside India is not barred, only outside the stated preference for a recognised Indian university, and no discipline is excluded by name; the eligibility clause simply does not reach past the subjects it lists.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Four months is a ceiling the policy never lifts. Each intern is engaged for a maximum period of four months, and the policy neither extends that term nor describes a second attachment for someone who has already served one (ICCR Internship Policy). The only people it writes out of later rounds by name are those who opted out of an earlier one.

What you get

Award & benefits

Each intern is paid an honorarium of Rs 10,000 a month, which the policy frames as money to defray basic costs rather than as a salary (ICCR Internship Policy). Air travel is paid for once, in both directions, with the ceiling set at the prevailing economy class fare on the state capital to Delhi sector and reckoned from whichever starting point the selected candidate has, the domicile state or the college or university (ICCR Internship Policy). The official FAQ further down this page answers that interns bear their own travel costs, which is not what the policy's Honorarium and air fare clause says, and ICCR, whose internship announcement still carries that policy as an attachment (Advertisement for Internship at ICCR), is the authority on which reading holds for a given round, so confirm it before booking a ticket. Board and lodging in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmadabad and Hyderabad stays with the intern throughout, which is the part both documents state alike, and beyond that the Council promises logistic support scaled to what the work needs.

ICCR does not hand the certificate over simply because four months have elapsed. Three things have to happen first: the internship has to close to the Council's satisfaction, the report or paper has to be handed in, and the Head of the Division the intern was attached to has to evaluate what was handed in. All three sit inside a single clause of the policy, so an attachment that ends without an assessed submission ends without the document most applicants came for.

• An honorarium of ₹ 10,000/- per month will be paid to each intern.
• The cost of one-time to and fro air travel is subject to a ceiling of the prevailing economy class airfare between the State capital and Delhi, from the domicile State or from the college/ university of the selected candidates will be provided.
• NOTE: The interns would be responsible for their board and lodging in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmadabad and Hyderabad.
• Necessary logistic support will be provided to the intern taking into account the functional requirements.
• Certificates will be issued to the interns on satisfactory completion of their internships and on submission of their Report/ Paper and its evaluation by the Head of the concerned Division.

What to prepare

Documents required

The application is a fixed proforma rather than a covering letter, and ICCR publishes it as its own PDF next to the policy on the internship announcement (Proforma for Internship). It wants a passport size photograph affixed, an education table running from matriculation onwards with the board or university, year of passing, division with percentage and subject, the course presently being pursued with its duration, the period during which the internship is required, two references from the present or last institute, the subject of specialisation, extra curricular activities, projects undertaken, and the reason for joining in not more than 50 words.

The final block on the form is not the applicant's to fill. The institute or university certifies that the particulars are correct, adds its recommendations, and signs and seals them, which means even a candidate who has already graduated goes back to the last institution attended. A CV travels with the form, and anyone joining during coursework adds a permission letter from the Supervisor or Head of Department (ICCR Internship Policy).

Step by step

How to apply

The policy routes applications to the Deputy Director General (Administration), ICCR, Azad Bhavan, IP Estate, New Delhi, at directoradmin.iccr@gov.in with a copy to spdadmn.iccr@gov.in (ICCR Internship Policy). Headquarters takes the intake for the regional offices too, so a candidate hoping for Pune or Guwahati still writes to Delhi and states the period wanted on the form. ICCR's internship announcement page carries exactly two attachments, the policy and the proforma, and no separate application link (Advertisement for Internship at ICCR).

Once the email leaves, an applicant has nothing to check. The policy creates no acknowledgement, no reference number and no status page: it describes the selection as an ongoing process taking into account the requirements of ICCR, says the actual offer is sent to selected candidates subject to the availability of a slot, and states that no queries will be entertained once the selection process is complete (ICCR Internship Policy). The first signal an applicant gets is the call to the video conference interview, and the last one is the offer.

How winners are picked

Selection process

The policy splits the work between two committees it requires to be separate, which is what the Council's annual report is describing when it calls this a two-tier selection process (ICCR Annual Report 2021-2022).

Both stages of the funnel are sized off that same intake number. With the year's intake capped at 15 and the interview list set at three times the number to be engaged, the pool called in is small, and the variable that puts a name in it is one number on a degree certificate (ICCR Internship Policy). That is also why the proforma asks for percentages going back to matriculation.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

An intern furnishes a declaration of secrecy to ICCR before the attachment begins, and verification and vetting from a security angle is completed on the personal particulars already submitted, after selection and before the programme starts (ICCR Internship Policy). Full confidentiality over any information relating to the Council runs through the whole period.

The output belongs to ICCR. Work is assigned by the concerned Sectional Head and may be research, written reports, analysis of evolving developments or anything else that head entrusts; at the end the intern submits a detailed report and, if required, presents it. Ownership of whatever comes out of that study stays with the Council, and prior approval from ICCR is needed before an intern puts it to any use, so the very report that unlocks the certificate cannot be recycled into a dissertation chapter or a journal submission on the intern's own authority.

Either side can end the attachment. ICCR can instruct an intern to terminate the programme at any time it deems fit, without showing a reason, and its decision on that is final. The intern's own exit is the one month's notice described earlier, at the price of any future round.

Get help

Contact

Applications and any question asked ahead of one go to the same desk: Deputy Director General (Administration), ICCR, Azad Bhavan, IP Estate, New Delhi, reachable at directoradmin.iccr@gov.in with a copy to spdadmn.iccr@gov.in (ICCR Internship Policy). Both addresses are printed in the policy PDF that ICCR still attaches to its internship announcement (Advertisement for Internship at ICCR), and the same policy stops entertaining queries once a selection round has finished, so the moment for asking is before the form goes in. The Council's published headquarters address is Azad Bhawan Road, I.P. Estate, New Delhi 110002, and its listed telephone numbers are +91-11-23379309 / 10 (ICCR contact page). Applications for a regional office placement still go through headquarters, because that is where the policy sends every application.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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