Union Minister for Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Thursday met Parliamentary delegation from Canada in New Delhi.
In the meeting, he said 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 best institutions in the country.
The Parliamentary delegation from Canada was led by the Speaker of the Senate George J Furey.
Nishank also spoke about the upcoming New Education Policy and how it is poised to make education in India more accessible, inclusive and high quality.
He also discussed how relations between India and Canada can be strengthened further in the field of education.
"Pokhriyal also explained in detail the initiatives taken by the Ministry of HRD for internationalization of Higher Education, such as Study in India, Global Initiative for Academic Network (GIAN) and Scheme for Promotion of Academic Research Collaboration (SPARC). He highlighted that Canada is one of the 28 countries participating in SPARC, with more 19 joint research proposals underways between Indian and Canadian Institutions," an official release said.
"Under GIAN, nearly 90 faculty members from Canadian institutions have come to teach courses in Indian institutions Shri Pokhriyal invited students from Canada to study in the fields of Yoga, Ayurveda, Hindi, Sanskrit, and other Indian languages and Indian philosophy along with science and technology in various Indian educational institutions," it read.
The minister spoke about the work being done by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), a bi-national orgzation created by a joint announcement of Government of India and Government of Canada in 1968, towards promoting academic exchange between the two countries.
"We should strive to develop a system whereby the top Canadian compes and Indian compes provide an opportunity to internship students in their respective countries. Many multinational compes are doing excellent work in both India-Canada locations," he said.
Pokhriyal also appealed that there is a need to promote collaborative research with Indian establishments in Canada, as it is doing excellent work in the fields of nanotechnology, green energy, ecology, medicine, etc.
"We should make special efforts to the enhance exchange of students between the two countries," he said.
The minister hoped that the meeting will effectively help in developing strategies to promote balanced international mobility of students and faculty between higher education institutions between India and Canada.
( With inputs from ANI )