New Delhi, May 17: One has worked with an Israeli border patrol unit. Another teaches Hindi in a New Zealand school. Yet another is a freshman at Yale University in the US. What is common to the 24 of them? They are all of Indian origin. What brings them together is a programme to introduce their homeland.

The 24 youngsters have been selected from the Indian diaspora spread across the globe to take part in the Know India Programme (KIP), organised by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) in coordination with the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) here.

At an official function on May 16, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi welcomed the enthusiastic participants, inviting them to know more about the land of their origin in the course of their stay in India.

KIP is the 2006 edition of the annual Internship Programme for Diaspora Youth (IPDY) organised by the MOIA. This year, IPDY has undergone a change in its format and hence the change in name.

Unlike in previous years when the participants were attached to a particular institution, this year the programme has been formatted as an orientation to enable the participants to get exposure to various facets of the Indian way of life and culture.

The participants will be based in New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh through the entire period of the programme from May 15 to June 12.

At the function, each participant was introduced to Ravi who then urged them to make the most of the programme given the change in its format. He also asked them to study the Indian political system that is at the heart of the world's largest democracy.

To a question from a participant on whether he could get a scholarship for higher studies in India, the Minister said that the Government was planning a university for the people of Indian origin (PIOs) to which both PIOs and non-resident Indians (NRIs) will have access.

MOIA Secretary Ramesh Narayanswami spoke about the Indian Government's initiatives for gender equality. He said 33 percent of seats in panchayats or village councils have been reserved for women.

NYKS officials gave an overview of this year's programme to the participants. The group will spend about three weeks in Himachal Pradesh and will be attached to families in the villages near Shimla.

The participants will also get to visit several industrial units in the state, and be part of an adventure camp near Kullu-Manali.

Another feature of the programme will be the National Integration Camp in which the group will get to interact with 150 youths from across India.

After returning to Delhi, they will visit the Taj Mahal in Agra and attend various programmes organised for them in the national capital.

The participants exuded excitement and anticipation as they took in the taste of India. Most of them are interested in knowing more about rural India - the village life.

Krishna Maroo from Britain, who had visited India only once when she was five, said that KIP for her was the next step to knowing her culture. A journalism graduate from Southampton Solent University, Maroo said she was looking forward to visiting villages.

Hemali Patel had been to India several times before, but this is the first opportunity she said she has got to learn Hindi and go to Himachal Pradesh.

Daughter of Gujarati parents based in Britain, her earlier visits had taken her to her ancestral home in Navsari in south Gujarat. In the final year of her graduation studies in business studies, Patel, however, lamented that she would not be able to go to Kerala this time.

Krishneel Mali from New Zealand, however, has not come to learn Hindi. After all, he teaches the language at the Wellington Hindi School besides being a presenter at the Indian Voice of Fiji radio station.

Mali's parents had migrated from Nadi in Fiji to Wellington four years ago. He said that he came to participate in KIP purely by chance after a friend of his, who regularly visits the Indian High Commission in Wellington, informed him about the programme. It was while holidaying in Fiji that he got a phone call informing about his selection.

Other participants of KIP this year are: Aazamina Rangwala (US), Aditi Neem (US), Amoli Pandya (US), Dhavanshne Nair (South Africa), Dikla Maneham (Israel), Dipti Manglani (UAE), Kamala Guganeswaran (Malaysia), Herve Narsapa (Reunion Island), Kala Nanthini (Malaysia), Lekha Gosai (South Africa), Liat Haim (Israel), Ofra Shirker (Israel), Parry Ranjan (Malaysia), Racheli Haligoa (Israel), Rahul Parmar (Canada), Ruchita Poddar (US), Rushil Maharaj (South Africa), Sarisha Lalaram (South Africa), Shankari Govindswamy (Malaysia), Srishti Rai Narayan (New Zealand) and Sudisha Naidu (South Africa).

Different countries, different people, different stories. Yet, they haven't lost the Indianness in them. And they are here to explore more of that.