Higher education tie-up on agenda during Japanese PM’s visit to India

File photo of Indian PM Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe

Delhi: Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will arrive in India on December 11 on a three-day visit to hold annual summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a focus on forging greater synergies between two major Asian economies and take forward the special strategic ties.

Also on the agenda may be collaboration in higher education between the two countries.

As per a report in Hindustan Times, Japan is keen to attract more Indian students and academics.

As of now, Indian and Japanese universities are already in collaboration but Abe’s visit could lead to inter-government collaboration in the field.

The report also said that an agreement could be signed on promoting the Japanese language in India’s educational institutions.

The Daily quoted sources as saying that the Japanese language could especially be promoted in the IITs.

As per government records, there are just 500 Indian students in Japan.

On the other hand more than 100,000 Indian students enrolled in the US.

A knowledge of Japanese language may help more Indian students to opt for higher education in Japan, especially when the cost of education there is lower compared to US.

Meanwhile, a number of India-Japan education summits reportedly have been planned for the academic year 2016-17.

The visit of Abe is for the Annual Summit meeting with PM Modi.

The summit meeting will be held on December 12 and Abe is likely to visit Varanasi, the Parliamentary constituency of Modi, on the same day, as per PTI.

Modi will accompany Abe during his visit to Varanasi.

During his visit, Abe is expected to go to the Buddhist site Sarnath and also attend the aarti on the banks of river Ganga.

At the last Summit meeting held in Tokyo last year, the two PMs had agreed to elevate the relationship to "Special Strategic and Global Partnership".

PM Modi had visited Japan from August 30 to September 3 last year.

(With Agency inputs)