(INDIA) — French President Emmanuel Macron set a target of hosting 30,000 Indian students a year in France by 2030 and, alongside Indian officials, inaugurated a new AI health hub at AIIMS New Delhi during his official visit to India February 17 to 19, 2026.
Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi elevated bilateral ties to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership,” pairing student mobility pledges with a research initiative aimed at AI-driven medical work, including brain health and clinical decision support.
Speaking at AIIMS New Delhi on February 18, 2026, Macron linked the education push to easier pathways for Indian applicants. “We decided with Prime Minister Modi to have 30,000 [students] by 2030. It’s largely feasible. On the French side, we have to simplify, and we will simplify, our sourcing and as well as the visa facility,” he said.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs framed the goal as a jump from current levels. “This will promote student mobility with the objective to meet the target of welcoming 30,000 Indian students to France by 2030 from the present 10,000,” it said in an India–France Joint Statement (Feb 17, 2026).
French policy steps outlined during the visit included a “Classes Internationales” pathway that allows Indian high school graduates to spend a foundation year in France learning the language before starting their degree, regardless of their initial French proficiency.
France also committed to visa simplification by aligning visa duration with the full length of academic programs, including three-year visas for PhD candidates, easing the need for renewals during multi-year courses.
Another element was a reiterated five-year short-stay Schengen visa for any Indian national who has spent at least one semester of study in France and reached a Master’s level, offering alumni a longer runway for travel across Schengen-area countries.
Officials also announced a six-month pilot program for visa-free transit for Indian nationals through French airports, adding a travel facilitation measure alongside education changes.
The education measures were announced as France and India widened cooperation beyond traditional defense and commercial ties, with officials presenting student flows and research exchanges as a core part of the updated partnership.
A second headline initiative centered on healthcare technology. On February 18, 2026, Macron and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda inaugurated the Indo-French Centre for AI in Health (IF-CAIH) at AIIMS New Delhi.
The facility is a 5,000 sq. ft. center dedicated to AI-driven medical research, built through an MoU between AIIMS New Delhi, Sorbonne University, and the Paris Brain Institute, with technical support from IIT Delhi.
Indian government materials described the AI health hub as a platform for joint work in areas that blend medicine and computation, and the project’s partners also signaled a broader push for shared capacity in data-intensive research.
The center’s initial research focus includes brain health, spanning neuroscience, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, as well as clinical decision support systems and digital health, reflecting a mix of specialized disease research and tools aimed at hospital workflows.
Macron emphasized “strategic autonomy” in remarks tied to the center’s goals, saying India and France must build their own “trusted AI systems” to avoid total dependence on external models from the U.S. or China.
India’s Press Information Bureau highlighted the inauguration and institutional tie-up in its release on the project, published as Inauguration of IF-CAIH at AIIMS (Feb 18, 2026).
French Embassy material on education and mobility measures accompanied the announcements, including the student target and visa-related steps, and the embassy has presented updates through its Official Announcements on Student Mobility.
For students, the changes aim to expand access to more than 35 QS-ranked French universities, while pointing to lower tuition fees due to public funding and a rising number of programs taught in English.
The target of 30,000 Indian students by 2030 would represent a step change from the present 10,000, and French officials presented visa and process simplification as a necessary precondition for achieving the expansion in annual enrollment.
The “Classes Internationales” foundation year model offers an entry point for students who want to study in France but do not begin with French language proficiency, positioning language preparation as a first academic step rather than an external requirement.
For researchers, the AIIMS-based center adds a new institutional channel for joint doctoral programs and academic exchanges, especially at the intersection of medicine, data science, and engineering.
Those exchanges align with the center’s stated research agenda, which ranges from neuroscience and neurodegenerative conditions to clinical decision support systems and digital health applications that could be tested in hospital settings.
Alumni mobility provisions—particularly the five-year short-stay Schengen visa linked to at least one semester of study in France and reaching a Master’s level—were presented as a way to facilitate longer-term professional networking across the European Union.
The France-India measures also arrived amid shifting U.S. immigration policy signals cited by officials as part of the global context for international student decisions and the competition among destinations for skilled talent.
A U.S. policy memorandum issued on January 1, 2026, titled “Hold and Review of USCIS Benefit Applications Filed by Aliens from Additional High-Risk Countries,” followed an expanded Presidential Proclamation and directed increased scrutiny on certain visa categories.
Some education experts suggest that increased scrutiny in the United States may inadvertently drive Indian talent toward partners like France, which is pairing university recruitment with steps aimed at easing entry and longer visa durations for students.
The U.S. context also included a late 2025 final rule that transitioned the H-1B lottery to a salary-weighted system prioritizing higher-paid roles, a change cited as influencing how international graduates assess destinations and career paths.
Macron and Indian officials positioned France’s student intake target, and the AI health hub’s joint research agenda, as practical pillars of the Special Global Strategic Partnership, with education and science framed as areas where simplified procedures and shared institutions can translate policy into movement.
“We decided with Prime Minister Modi to have 30,000 [students] by 2030. It’s largely feasible. On the French side, we have to simplify, and we will simplify, our sourcing and as well as the visa facility,” Macron said.
