Nalanda University to open by 2010, says Amartya Sen



Published: Wednesday, 20 August, 2008, 08:43 AM Doha Time


NEW DELHI: Academic sessions at the reborn Nalanda University, on the lines of
the pioneering institution set up in Bihar in the fifth century, will begin by
2010, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said.
“Yes, 2010 is very likely,” Sen said when asked when students would start
getting enrolled at the university.
Sen chairs a panel of high-profile people from India and abroad appointed as
mentors of the proposed university.
“The government of India is preparing and we have been preparing a proposal
for the East Asia Summit to adopt. That will happen at a meeting in December,”
he said in an interview to All India Radio.
“After that, the bill based on that will go to parliament and when the bill is
enacted, then we will start appointing and have different schools. The building
construction can’t begin until there is a bill,” he said.
“The land has already been given by the Bihar government. They are also making
an initial investment. There would be some initial funding also coming both from
Bihar and from the government of India. Then there have been various
proposals.”
Sen said the initiative for the university came from the 16 founding members of
the East Asia Summit, adding that some of them - including Thailand, Singapore,
South Korea and Japan, besides China - will be approached for funding.
“It will probably be an international rather than national university to be
located at the site of the old university,” said Sen, who with the panel of
mentors met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week on the issue.
“Nalanda is a landmark in our civilisational journey and a revival of Nalanda
signifies an Asian renaissance,” Singh remarked at the meeting, while
referring to the institution that was destroyed in the 12th century.
The mentors include Lord Meghnad Desai, deputy chairman of Bihar’s Planning
Commission N K Singh, Sugata Bose of Harvard University and Wang Banwei of
Beijing University.
According to Sen, Nalanda University was started with the patronage of the kings
of Patliputra in the fifth century, when there was no similar institution or
university in existence anywhere in the world.
“The first university that came up thereafter was in Balonia. That was much
later - more than 500 years later. When Nalanda University was destroyed in the
12th century that was just about the time when Oxford University was getting
established.” – IANS




Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to
http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/invite/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]