New Delhi
June 11, 2009
(Press Information Bureau)

India and USA will be setting up a Joint Working Group in education headed by the Union Minister of Human Resource Development of India and its equivalent from the USA. This was decided in the meeting between Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble HRM and Mr. William J Burns, Under Secretary, Political Affairs, US State Development who had a meeting today. The Joint Working Group will meet once every year alternately in India and USA and will focus on institutional linkages in the field of Secondary Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education. The US side expressed keen interest in pursuing a Bilateral Education Dialogue with India for fruitful cooperation in the field of education. 

Shri Kapil Sibal, while interacting with US delegation stated that the 21st Century will be a Knowledge Century and India with its young population, will be a major provider of trained workforce to the entire world. He was looking forward to cooperating with the US in the education sector. The HRD Minister underlined that one of his focus areas would be bringing up the gross enrolment ratio to even beyond 15 as envisaged in this plan. He also clearly stated that fly by night operators would not be tolerated in the education sector. 

India tops the list of countries sending students to USA for studies. Nearly 90,000 students annually go to US from India for studies as per estimates available in recent years.