In 2001 the Ford Foundation appointed a team to develop and manage IFP in India. In close consultation with the New Delhi office of the Ford Foundation and with the advice of experienced academics and social scientists, the IFP India team launched the program in April 2001. Its operations were housed at the United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF), New Delhi, which acted as the IFP International Partner in the country. IFP India aimed to support individuals from disadvantaged groups that lacked access to higher education due to various forms of socio-economic deprivation, including those living in geographically remote areas. After an initial all-India intake, the India program concentrated on specific states including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. The selection of Fellows was performed by an independent selection panel of Indian citizens from academia and civil society, to which the IFP team acted as secretariat. Many of the 330 Fellows came from small towns and rural areas across India, many were first generation literates, 47% were women, 13% came from Scheduled Castes, 13% from Scheduled Tribes, 26% - from Other Backward Classes, 34% belonged to religious minority groups, and 4% had physical challenges. 45% of the IFP Fellows from India went to graduate schools in the United States, 45% to the UK, while the remaining award recipients attended universities in Europe, Asia and Australia. After the Fellows' return to India, IFP helped Alumni to re-integrate into their home environments with the support of the Alumni networks across the states of India.

Digital materials, including program files, mail, and fellow files, and totaling 75.5 GB arrived in July 2013. Paper records, totaling 35 linear feet, came in 5 shipments in May-June 2013. 263 IFP India Fellows gave their consent to granting researchers access to their files. The materials are in English.