The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : British Council looks beyond metros

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

British Council looks beyond metros

By K.V.S. Madhav

HYDERABAD, FEB. 1. The British Council is working with various British universities to evolve 40 to 50 full scholarships exclusively for those hailing from the Indian hinterlands for the academic year beginning in 2006.

"We want to identify and encourage Indian students from new places where there is immense potential," Minister, Cultural Affairs, British Council, Edmund Marsden, said here on Tuesday.

The British Government offers 120 scholarships to Indian students studying in the U.K. every year while British universities offer many part scholarships. Some 15,000 students went for higher studies to the U.K. last year, mostly in the areas of engineering, Information Technology and business management, more than three-folds increase in the last four years.

"It is an impressive number and a majority hail from South India. We are looking at students from other parts of the country too, and in the areas of humanities, social sciences, literature and creative industries," he said.

This was a part of the British Council's effort to look beyond the metros and make inroads into the smaller cities and towns. "We want to break away from the old practice of putting all our eggs in the metros. We want to take the India-United Kingdom relations to a new level by taking our activities, both academic and cultural, to new places in the country," said Mr. Marsden.

Long-term tie-ups

The India reach-out programme was in the wake of the declaration inked by the Prime Ministers of both the countries -- Manmohan Singh and Tony Blair -- in September last for forging long-term partnerships in various areas of activity.

In the blueprint of the programme were cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur and Bhubhaneshwar. "In the next one-and-a-half years, we will be making major investments in various activities here," he said.

Theatre production

The Council's other major Indian initiative was theatre production of Shakespeare's, `A Midsummer Night's Dream', with an all-Indian cast. Famous opera director, Tim Supple, would direct the end-of-the-year production.

"This will be Shakespeare with a strong Indian flavour. The music will be Indian and there will be plenty of dances too. There is no end to possibilities," he smiled. The play would be taken to the Royal Shakespeare Company festival in the U.K. too. Television films based on the India-UK relations in the fields of science and arts were also in the pipeline.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh

News Update

Stories in this Section

British Council looks beyond metros

Ex-MD forces his way into office

Cancer centre to set up advanced facility

CPI protests against water tariff hike

In expansion mode

Aurobindo students contribute to tsunami relief fund

HYSA donates Rs. 2.5 lakhs to Care Foundation

Four more metro buses from today

Fine for not strapping helmet

GCC employee in ACB net

Around the City

In Hyderabad Today