Government plans varsity for languages’ promotion

The education ministry is planning to set up a Bharatiya Bhasha Vishwavidyalaya to promote Indian languages and has constituted a high-level panel to draft a blueprint, an order by the ministry has said.

The eleven-member panel, chaired by former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami and comprising several eminent personalities, will outline the modalities of the Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation, the order said.

According to the November 27 order, the panel will recommend the aims and objectives of the Bharatiya Bhasha Vishwavidyalaya (BBV) and the Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI). HT has seen a copy of the letter.

The panel will draft a blueprint for the governance structure of the two institutes, including the department and centres that would work under them, the ministry order said.

The committee will also review the infrastructure available under the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysuru in terms of land, buildings and manpower, academic as well as non academic, and how they can be utilized for BBV, the ministry order said.

“The committee will also suggest the financial requirement, capital and recurring, for conversion of CIIL into BBV and IITI. The committee will also suggest additional requirement of land, if any,” said the order.

Another item on the panel’s agenda is to outline how the functioning of Centre of Excellence for studies in classical languages could be accommodated in the proposed university.

The decision to set up the institute is in line with the National Education Policy’s focus on promoting Indian languages. Apart from Gopalaswami, UGC chief D P Singh, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sankrit University vice chancellor Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Mahatamagandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya vice chancellor Rajnish Shukla, Prof Balwant Jani, chancellor of Dr Hari Singh Gaur University and Prof Chand Kiran Saluja of Sanskrit Promotion Foundation in New Delhi, are also on the panel.