London: Britain and India on Wednesday signed
seven Memorandums of Understanding to increase the number of
Institutes of Excellence in India and strengthen ties in the
multi-billion pound education sector.
The signing of MoUs at the Lancaster House was
witnessed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and Britain's Secretary
of state for business, innovation and skills, Lord Peter
Mandelson.
Two of the MOUs were signed between India's Human
Resource Development ministry and the British Council and the
remaining five between Indian Universities including the
Institute of Socio Economic Research Pune, IIT Ropar and UK
institutions, including the Imperial College, University of
Glasgow, Keele University and the University of Surrey.
The Imperial College is already helping to set up an
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Ropar.
The signing of MoUs was preceded by a round table
meeting between Indian delegation led by Sibal and 17 vice
chancellors or senior representatives of British universities
including Cambridge.
After the meeting, Sibal said, "We had a wonderful
session with the Vice Chancellors of Universities."
Lord Mandelson said "with almost 40 per cent of
India's population under the age of 15, meeting India's demand
for education is among the foremost challenges for this new
decade. I hope that the UK can play a role in helping India to
achieve its ambitions."
-PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 23:12