India-US launch education venture

After his predecessor Arjun Singh’s resistance to a law for foreign education providers, new Human Reso-urce Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday stressed for better partnership with foreign educational institutions to ensure better-trained Indian workforce for the global job market.

After his predecessor Arjun Singh’s resistance to a law for foreign education providers, new Human Reso-urce Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday stressed for better partnership with foreign educational institutions to ensure better-trained Indian workforce for the global job market.

Announcing the setting up of a Joint Working Group on education with United States, Sibal, however, said fly-by-night operators would not be tolerated.

With Sibal at the helm, the foreign education providers’ Bill may finally see the light of day.
The decision to set up the group was made at a meeting between Sibal and William J Burns, Under Secretary, political affairs, of the US State Department on Thursday.

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The two will head the group, which will meet once every year alternately in India and the US. It will focus on institutional linkages in the fields of secondary, higher and vocational education, an HRD Ministry statement said.

India and the US have a similar working group for cooperation in the business sector.

While interacting with the US delegation, Sibal said this century would be a knowledge century in which India, with its young population, would be a major workforce provider. He also said he was looking forward to cooperating with the US in the education sector.

The US delegation expressed keen interest in pursuing a bilateral education dialogue with India for fruitful cooperation in education.

India tops the list of countries that send students to the US for studies.