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The first joint higher education summit between the United States and India is going to be held on 15th June in Washington. It is expected that this summit will be co-chaired by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State and Kapil Sibal, the Human Resource Development minister of India.

The event that will take place for two days will explore all the opportunities and also address the concerns regarding higher education. This summit is a part of the cooperation between United States and India in the field of education that was agreed between the two nations when Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, visited United States in November, 2009.

An official from the ministry of Human Resource Development said that the summit will be held in Washington on 15 to 16 June and is expected to be co-chaired by both the US Secretary of State and Indian HRD minister. A round table meet was held by the HRD ministry in New Delhi in run up to the summit.

The plans of holding the summit have been disclosed by the Indian Prime Minister when President Barrack Obama visited the country in last year. The prime minister told that cooperation in the sector of education holds excellent promise and this can help in building the future economy.   
     
Constitution comprising of 5 working groups has been announced by the ministry of Human Resource Development from the academic field and the industry leaders. This will help to figure out the special areas for cooperation and avenues of interest with the United States. Sibal, who chaired this round table meeting said that these five groups will be working in various fields such as environment building for the institutional partnership, academic leadership and initiatives of faculty development. They will also work in the field of research and institutional collaboration between the two nations.

Apart from this these working groups will try to make developments in the mechanisms of collaboration in academic industry, skill and vocational development and knowledge partnership. According to a statement which was released by the HRD ministry, this meeting was attended by different industry bodies such as ASSOCHAM, CII, FICCI and the heads of several institutions of higher education.

The discussions were also joined by the officials from External Affairs Ministry. The different initiatives that have been taken by both the countries were appreciated by the round table meet. These include Fulbright scholarships, Yale-India Program and many more. The ministry of Human Resource Development is in favor of this kind of partnership programs in the future.

The Indian Prime Minister announced the education summit between United States and India last year in a joint press conference with President Obama who was visiting the country at that time. Kapil Sibal, the HRD minister was present at the talks that were held at that time. The heads of several top American universities were part of the delegation of Obama that came to India last year. According to sources both the government educational institutions and the private sector is going to play a major role in this summit.