A ticket to India will normally cost over $1200. That would be $120,000 spend on your Discover Card. Not all cards and points are created equal!

If you sign up for one of the Citibank Thank You Points card, you can cash in $60,000 points - ie $60,000 spent (or much less - see below) - for a ticket to India...regardless of ticket price for your needed dates.

Not only so, but there are lots of ways of multiplying your Thank-You points. For example, the Diamond version earns 5 points/$ spent on gas/groceries/drugstore purchases. You can also earn bonus Thank You points from hundreds of online merchants, from Expedia.com, and from flying (with the PremierPass Card). If you sign up for the card when they are offering 10,000 sign up bonuses again (they have been going back and forth) earning 60,000 Thank You Points could look something like this:
1) 10,000 Points - Sign up for first card
2) 25,000 Points - Spend between self/family $5000 on groceries/gas/drugstore purchases
3) 10,000 Points - Sign up for second Citibank Card
4) 15,000 Points - Student bills of $15,000 charged to card

Net result: You spent $20,000 on Citicards and earned 60,000 Thank You Points for a free (often prices as $1500-$2000) ticket to India.

Earning 120,000 Discover Points is much much harder and would only cover your ticket to India if you need cheap dates - for a $1200 ticket.

Citi does issue these cards to students. My brother just applied for and was approved for the Diamond Card - as a student with a beginning credit history.

The best Thank You Points card for the infrequent traveller is the CitiBank ATT Universal Card. It offers 5X in the same categories at the Citibank Diamond Card - but with the Diamond Card the 5X is only for the first 12 months. The Diamond Card is however easier to get approved for than the ATT version based on the experience of 3 people I know who applied for both and were atleast initially rejected for the ATT but approved for the Diamond.

Once you have a credit history with Citibank you should apply for the Premier Pass Card if you fly much. This way you can match all the poins you earn from spending when you fly the tickets you would normally fly already. Say you spend $6K a year on gas/groceries/drugstore purchases on the ATT card. That is 30K points/year. Then spend only another $15K a year on everything else on the Premier Pass Card and fly one ticket to Asia a year. That ticket to Asia would earn you another 15K points = 30K points. Total: 60K points year without any signup bonuses. I recomend doing some churning (closing a couple accounts a year and applying for a couple similar new ones) for the sign-up bonuses. All in, fly for free without being able to spend hundreds of thousands a year.

Never mind the fact Citibank would issue your card as a Visa or MasterCard meaning it would actually work in other countries. Your Discover card will be Useless.

There is a reason I like Thank You Points and am currently offering the house for them on coupon connection. They can be used without problem for expensive tickets - it is easy to get 2 cents/points or far more if you need expensive tickets.