‘Study yoga, ayurveda in India’: HRD minister Nishank’s pitch to Canada

Nishank told the Canadian side that India is an ideal education destination where students from foreign countries can come to study niche courses like yoga and ayurveda.

Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Thursday pitched India as a destination for Canadian students for niche courses including yoga and ayurveda. Nishank’s emphasis on attracting Canadian students came at his meeting with a Canadian delegation led by the Speaker of the Senate, Parliament of Canada, George J Furey. The two sides explored ways to grant more exposure and quality education to students of both countries, an official statement later said.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament in New Delhi. (PTI)

Nishank told the Canadian side that India is an ideal education destination where students from foreign countries can come to study niche courses like yoga and ayurveda, along with other disciplines in some of the country’s best institutions.

The human resource development (HRD) minister also spoke about the upcoming New Education Policy and how it holds the potential to make education in India more accessible, inclusive and high quality.

Pokhriyal also invited students from Canada to study yoga, ayurveda, hindi, sanskrit and other Indian languages along with science and technology in various Indian educational institutions. He also talked about the work being done by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), a bi-national organization created by virtue of a pact between the two governments in 1968 to promote academic exchange between the two countries.

Pokhriyal said there was a need to make special efforts to enhance exchange of students between the two countries. The minister hoped the meeting would effectively help in developing strategies to promote balanced international mobility of students and faculty between higher education institutions between India and Canada.