The holy city is all set to host the second round of meetings of G20 Education Working Group (EdWG), which are being organised by Union Ministry of Education, commencing on Tuesday.
28 G20 member countries, guest countries and invited organisations (OECD, UNESCO and UNICEF) will be participating in the 3-day event consisting of seminar/exhibition and working group meetings.
Divulging the information in this regard, Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Higher Education, Government of India, said, “The seminar on ‘Strengthening Research and Promoting Innovation through richer Collaboration’ will be organised at Khalsa College by IIT Ropar with collaborative inputs from prominent Higher Education Institutions such as IISc Bengaluru, IIM Amritsar and TISS Mumbai. The seminar on March 15 will begin with a presentation from Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director IISc Bengaluru on ‘Research Initiatives in G20 countries’ with inputs provided by G20 members and invitee countries in the seminar”.
“The seminar will also include two Panel Discussions, one on ‘Research in Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, Industry – 4.0’ to be chaired by Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, Director, IIT Ropar, and second one on, ‘Research in Sustainable Development Goals’ to be chaired by Dr. Shalini Bharat, Director TISS Mumbai. The panel discussion will see participation from France, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Oman, South Africa, UNICEF, China and UAE”, he elaborated.
A multimedia exhibition will also be organised on the side-lines of the seminar, which will provide a physical format to the participating countries along with industry, academia to present the best practices in research, innovation, collaboration and partnership, said the officials.
{{/usCountry}}A multimedia exhibition will also be organised on the side-lines of the seminar, which will provide a physical format to the participating countries along with industry, academia to present the best practices in research, innovation, collaboration and partnership, said the officials.
{{/usCountry}}He said, the two-day meeting on the March 16,17 will provide a platform to deliberate on the four priority areas.
The meetings will be chaired by Murthy with Secretary (School education and literacy), Sanjay Kumar and secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Atul Kumar Tiwari as Alternate Chairs. More than 55 delegates from 28 countries are expected to attend the meeting and seminar, where they will share their best practises for strengthening research and innovation.
Delegates will be taken to Golden Temple on the March 17 as part of excursion component of the EdWG meetings. On the side-lines of the G20 meetings cultural events are also planned to highlight Punjab’s vibrant culture. The district administration will also host a Sufi festival at the Gobindgarh Fort on the evenings of March 15-17.
The city has been decorated with wall paintings, lightings, colourful flags, Gurmukhi writings, and hoardings depicting culture of Punjab to welcome the foreign delegates attending the G20 sessions.
Meanwhile, director general of police Gaurav Yadav visited Amritsar on Tuesday to review the security arrangements and held meetings with senior officials.The delegates of the Y20 paid obeisance at Sri Harmandir Sahib where they were also honoured by the SGPC.
Police conduct raids at over 300 places, hideouts
In view of the G20 meeting , Punjab Police conducted a special cordon and search operation (CASO) under which raids were conducted at locations and hideouts related to foreign-based gangsters as well as their associates. The CASO was conducted on directions of director general of police Punjab Gaurav Yadav in all the 28 police districts. Additional director general of police (ADGP) Law and Order Arpit Shukla said that CPs/SSPs were directed to personally monitor these raids and make sufficient numbers of police teams so that raids could be carried out simultaneously.
The raids were planned after the questioning of recently arrested gangsters and criminals, he added. Around 100 parties of Punjab Police, involving over 1000 police personnel, were deployed to conduct these raids at suspected places and hideouts of foreign based gangsters, he said, adding that over 300 houses and other shelters were thoroughly checked by the police teams.