The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has announced 1,000 online scholarships for Afghan students to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes at Indian universities during the 2026-27 academic year.

The scholarships are being offered under the Special Scholarship Scheme for Afghan Nationals (SSSAN) through India’s e-VidyaBharti (e-VB) Network Project, which provides online higher education to students from partner countries.

According to the ICCR announcement, the scholarships cover online undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in a range of disciplines, including arts, commerce, management, business administration and computer science. Tuition, admission, examination and other academic fees will be covered under the programme.

Applications will open on July 15 through the e-VidyaBharti i-Learn portal, with the deadline for online submissions set for July 24.

The scholarships are open to Afghan nationals residing anywhere in the world, provided they hold a valid Afghan national identity document or passport. Students admitted under the programme will study online through participating Indian universities approved by India’s University Grants Commission (UGC).

The ICCR advised applicants to review the list of participating universities and available courses on the e-VidyaBharti portal before submitting their applications. Admission will be limited to programmes offered by participating institutions.

The e-VidyaBharti Network Project was launched by India’s Ministry of External Affairs in 2019 to expand access to higher education through online learning. The initiative enables international students to pursue degree programmes remotely while receiving financial support for their studies.

The latest scholarship announcement continues India’s education support for Afghan students and provides an opportunity for eligible applicants to obtain internationally recognised university qualifications through distance learning.

Football fans in Afghanistan will be able to watch the inaugural FIFA YouTube Creator Cup live and exclusively on Ariana Television and Ariana Sport YouTube channels in the early hours of Monday morning. 

The exhibition match, hosted by FIFA and YouTube in New York City, brings together some of the world’s leading YouTube creators, elite athletes and celebrities in a celebration of football and digital entertainment. The event will be streamed globally on YouTube as part of FIFA’s partnership with the platform.

Fans in Afghanistan can stream the event from 1.30am tonight on Ariana Television YouTube Channel and on Ariana Sport YouTube Channel. 

The Creator Cup forms part of FIFA’s Preferred Platform Partnership with YouTube, announced earlier this year, which aims to make YouTube a major destination for FIFA World Cup content throughout the 2026 tournament.

FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström said the collaboration reflects the organisation’s commitment to expanding the reach of the World Cup through digital platforms.

“This collaboration with YouTube reinforces our ambition to maximise the tournament’s impact across the ever-evolving media landscape,” he said.

The Creator Cup will feature some of the world’s biggest online personalities, with creators representing more than a dozen countries. Participants include football content creators, lifestyle influencers and entertainers with a combined audience of more than 350 million subscribers.

Among the creators taking part are Celine Dept of Belgium, The Sidemen from the United Kingdom, Jesser and Deestroying from the United States, Jeenie Weenie from Canada, Noor Stars from the United Arab Emirates, TokaiOnAir RYO of Japan, Kwak Yoongy from South Korea, Kika Kim from Kazakhstan and Viniblogger from Brazil.

The event is expected to include behind-the-scenes content, creator challenges and a showcase match designed to connect football with the next generation of digital audiences.

The Creator Cup also highlights YouTube’s growing role in FIFA’s media strategy. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, official broadcast partners have been given access to stream the opening 10 minutes of every match on YouTube, while selected broadcasters are also showing full matches and exclusive digital content.

Fans across Afghanistan can watch the FIFA YouTube Creator Cup live and exclusively on the Ariana Television and Ariana Sport YouTube channels, bringing the global creator event directly to Afghan audiences.

UNICEF has warned that 3.7 million children under the age of five in Afghanistan are at increased risk of malnutrition as worsening food and nutrition insecurity threatens to deepen the country’s child health crisis ahead of the annual peak wasting season.

In a new report released on Sunday, Too Little, Too Late: The Diet Crisis Facing Young Children in Afghanistan, UNICEF said child food and nutrition insecurity is one of the main drivers of undernutrition, urging immediate action to protect children’s diets before conditions deteriorate further.

For the first time, UNICEF has measured child malnutrition alongside the lived experience of food and nutrition insecurity among the same group of children across all 34 provinces. The assessment identified early warning signs such as reduced dietary diversity, skipped meals, children eating less than they need and going hungry.

The report comes as Afghanistan enters the peak wasting season between July and September. According to the latest Nutrition Cluster data, wasting has already worsened in 26 of the country’s 34 provinces compared with 2025, signalling an earlier and more severe crisis than expected.

Children under the age of two are the hardest hit, accounting for 83 percent of severe acute malnutrition cases and 77 percent of moderate acute malnutrition cases.

“Young children in Afghanistan are being pushed closer to malnutrition before the peak season has even begun,” said UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale.

“This new evidence gives us an opportunity to act before children reach the point of severe malnutrition. When families begin reducing meals or cutting back on nutritious foods, it is not only a sign of hardship. It is a warning that a child may soon become dangerously wasted. Treatment saves lives, but we must also invest in prevention, starting with the diets of the youngest children and pregnant women.”

UNICEF said worsening malnutrition is being driven not only by poor diets and increasing food insecurity but also by disease outbreaks, low immunisation coverage, inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene services, as well as growing funding and supply shortages.

The agency warned that children living in severely food-insecure households are up to six times more likely to suffer from wasting during peak malnutrition periods.

Wasting is a severe and potentially life-threatening form of malnutrition in which a child becomes dangerously thin for their height, often due to inadequate food intake, illness or a combination of both.

UNICEF is calling for urgent investment to expand preventive nutrition programmes, including its First Foods Initiative for children aged six to 23 months, while strengthening health, nutrition, water, sanitation, education and social protection services.

With the peak wasting season fast approaching, UNICEF said the window to prevent more children from becoming severely malnourished is rapidly closing and called for urgent, flexible funding to help reach vulnerable families before food insecurity turns into a life-threatening emergency.