Chicago univ to have Vivekananda chair

The 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda will reach the US shores as the Manmohan Singh government decided to create a special Chair named after the Indian philosopher in the Chicago University.

The 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda will reach the US shores as the Manmohan Singh government decided to create a special Chair named after the Indian philosopher in the Chicago University.

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The Centre has set aside $1.5 million as endowment grant for creating this "Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Chair".

This will be the second Chair-a faculty post-in an American university. There is one Chair in the name of Bhim Rao Ambedkar at Columbia University. The Centre also has an endowment programme at the Stanford University.

The Centre has already kickstarted the celebrations of Vivekananda's 150th birth anniversary earlier this year through various programmes and PM Manmohan Singh even announced a R100 crore grant to Ramakrishna Mission-founded by Vivekananda himself-and other institutes to implement various social service schemes. While the faculty post in the Chicago University would be implemented by 2013-the 150th birth-year of the Swami-a special art exhibition of Rabindranath Tagore's painting would be held in Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) between January 28 and April 15 next year.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to travel to Chicago next year to inaugurate the exhibition and announce the creation of the Vivekananda Chair.