Moscow, July 09: Two Indian professors have been honoured with the Pushkin medal, the highest international award for outstanding contribution to Russian studies abroad, at the World Forum of Teachers of Russian language and literature held in St Petersburg last week. Prof K P S Unny of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Prof Sabiruddin of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee won the prestigious award.

Previous Indian recipients of the prize include first Director of Institute of Russian Studies in India (now part of JNU) Prof C N Chakravarti and Prof Abhai Maurya of Delhi University. Over 1,200 delegates from all over the world participated in the Congress of the International Association of the Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (Mapryal), which is recognised by the UNESCO, Rosbalt agency reported.

Prof Abhai Maurya, head of the Department of Slavonic Studies of the Delhi University, was elected to the 12-member presidium of Mapryal and Prof K S Dhingra of JNU was elected to the eleven-member international editorial board of the journal "Russky Yazyk Zarubezhom" (Russian language abroad).

Bureau Report