India, US to set up joint education council

India and the US are proposing to set up an India-US Education Council. The council, which will have representatives of industry and education as members, will coordinate the moving forward of bilateral relations in education between the two countries.

This was discussed during the meeting of the union minister for human resource development, Kapil Sibal and William Burns, the US under secretary of state for political affairs, in New Delhi. The meeting was held in the backdrop of the forthcoming visit of the prime minister to the US in November and that of Kapil Sibal later this month.

The US delegation conveyed that many universities in America are keen to know India's roadmap for the education sector. The areas of collaboration that the two sides are looking at include research, distant education, vocational education, skill development, exchange of faculty, models of public private partnership and also expertise for the setting up of universities.

In his forthcoming visit to the US, Kapil Sibal proposes to hold meetings with American policy makers, which include senators and congressmen, government officials besides holding meetings with some American universities. The framework of the proposed India-US Education Council is to be crystallised in this visit.