Foreign students coming to India should also feel safe: Tharoor

With a top US official reportedly indicating that frequent instances of rapes in India could possibly be a factor in American students keeping away from the country, government today said if there was such a concern it should be addressed and stressed that ensuring security of students was a priority. Union Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor said there were various reasons, including that Indian universities lacked the reputation to attract foreigners, behind foreign students not coming to India. There was a “lot of pressure” from Indian students feeling that there were not enough seats for them even as very few seats were set aside for foreigners in Indian institutions, he told reporters on the sidelines of a convocation function at Sri Ramachandra University here. Reuters“The second thing is that many of our universities don’t yet have an international reputation to attract foreign students. On the other issue of security and so on, obviously if there is concern for some people, it should be addressed. “We have every desire to keep our own people safe and any foreigner coming to our country should also be allowed to feel safe,” he said. US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell during an interaction with students at Ranchi had reportedly said the concerns over personal security to women as a result of the rape cases could perhaps be a reason for them not coming to India for studies. To a question on setting up IIT in his native state Kerala, Tharoor said, “It is not likely to happen in the lifetime of the present government.” Tharoor said a number of IITs were set up in the last Five Year Plan but Kerala did not get one. “In the current Five Year Plan, no new IIT has been authorised by the Planning Commission or the Cabinet and the policy of the government before we even came to the ministry was that to have efforts to consolidate the existing institutions rather than create any new ones. “Kerala government remains very strongly committed to having an IIT but at this stage, given the procedure involved, it is not likely to happen in the lifetime of the present government,” he said, adding that the issue could be taken up only after the next general elections. He, however, said Kerala was “certainly a knowledge-oriented state” which had the potential to get an IIT. On pending bills of his ministry before Parliament, he said this was the case with every department, with many sessions being disrupted by the opposition. With the coming winter session being a short one, he said maybe one or two might be passed if “we are lucky.” Earlier, the Minister in his convocation address stressed on innovation and cited his own example by highlighting his problems with his spectacles. With Tharoor damaging them by not handling them properly, a friend had come up with an innovative idea where his glasses could be hung around his neck and joined when required. He made a little demo of the innovation that drew loud cheers from the audience.

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