New Delhi: The first joint Indo-US summit on
higher education is expected to be co-chaired by HRD Minister
Kapil Sibal and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in
Washington on June 15.
The two-day event seeks to explore opportunities and
address concerns in the field of higher education.
The summit is part of the US-India cooperation on
education which was agreed upon by the two countries in
November 2009 during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh state visit
to the US.
"The summit is scheduled to be held on June 15-16, 2011
in Washington with the HRD Minister and US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton expected to co-chair," said a HRD Ministry
official as the Ministry held a round table meet here today in
the run up to the meet.
The Prime Minister had disclosed plans to hold the
summit during US President Barack Obama`s visit to the country
last year saying, "Cooperation in the field of education
sector holds great promise because no two other countries are
better equipped to be partners in building the knowledge
economy of the future".
The HRD Ministry has announced constitution of five
working groups, from among the industry leaders and academia,
to identify specific areas of interest and avenues for
cooperation with the United States.
Chairing the round-table meet here today, Sibal said the
groups would work in the fields like `building environment for
institutional partnership`, faculty development initiatives
and academic leadership and in the field of `academic-industry
collaboration (institutional & research)` between both the
countries.
Besides, the working groups would seek to develop
mechanisms for knowledge partnerships, academic-industry
collaboration and vocational and skill development.
The meet was attended by industry bodies like CII,
FICCI, ASSOCHAM and heads of various higher education
institutions, with officials from the Ministry of External
Affairs also joining the discussions, said a statement
released by the Ministry.
The round table appreciated various initiatives already
underway between the two countries like the Obama-Singh
Knowledge Initiative, Yale-India Leadership Programme,
Fullbright scholarships etc.
It favoured taking such partnership programmes further
through an institutional bilateral mechanism with active
participation of the Industry, the statement said.
PTI
