HRD ministry to set up task force to ease visa issues of foreign students

Share this News:

Pune, January 28, 2020: A task force will be set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development along with Ministry of External Affairs and officials from University Grants Commission and Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) to ease the visa issues faced by foreign students studying in India.

The information was shared by HRD minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ who was in Pune to inaugurate a two day conference ‘ Destination India’ which aims to develop a roadmap to attract more foreign students. The event was organised by Indian Council for Cultural Relations in collaboration with Symbiosis International (Deemed University) and Savitribai Phule Pune University at Symbiosis International, Lavale Campus, Pune.

“We need to take care of human emotions. We cannot treat man as machine. Machines are there to assist us and not to control us. Our nation has the maximum number of youngsters which no other country has, we should take advantage of it”, said Pokhriyal.

“Our country has the origin of ayurveda, yoga, classical dance and music, indian literature etc. Nowadays, the western world is following in our footsteps, considering our heritage we should promote it across the world in terms of attracting foreign students”, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal added further in his speech.

He appreciated the initiative taken by ICCR, SIU & SSPU by saying, “The world is not a BAZAAR but a PARIVAR”, he promoted harmony, peace and significance of justly imparted knowledge.

The inaugural address was given by Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, President ICCR. During his speech he took the opportunity to thank the NITI Ayog for its commendable job done in the direction of education and also talked about solutions like setting up of Institution of Democratic Government and its kind to strengthen the curriculum offered by Indian Universities. He further reiterated that the Indian embassies abroad also need to contribute in the efforts for attracting foreign students to India.

Akhilesh Mishra, DG ICCR, talked about the objective of repositioning India as an attractive hub of education and also emphasised on the importance of creating better infrastructure in order to attract more International students.

Prof Rajneesh Jain, Secretary, UGC, talked about enhancing the foreign collaborations with International universities and promotion of programmes like GIAN & GIAN + along with other schemes initiated by the UGC to achieve higher inflow of international students.

The ceremony, provided a window into the highly engaging conversations lined up, across various sessions for the two-day conference.

The discussions during the two-day conference will be submitted to the government as a suggestion.