Indian HC hosts alumni get-together

The annual get-together of ITEC participants and Sri Lankan students who studied in India was held on March 22 with the participation of nearly 400 alumni from across the country.

To felicitate the alumni, a reception was organized by the Indian High Commission at Hotel Taj Samudra under the patronage of Indian High Commissioner Ashok K. Kantha with Health Minister Mathripala Sirisena gracing the occasion as the Chief Guest.

The International Students' Day is celebrated every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Education Minister of independent India.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Sirisena lauded Maulana Azad's lead role in laying the foundation of India's school and higher education system, and contribution to the system of free and subsidized education. The minister said such a system helps in bringing about equality in society, assists the marginalized section in their uplift and promotes social harmony.

While mentioning the centuries' old cultural and educational links between both the countries, Minister Sirisena appreciated India's scholarship assistance for Sri Lanka. This includes over 270 scholarships and highly subsidized self-financed slots.

Sharing her experience of studying in India, one of the alumni said she received not just her degree in India but a learning of lifetime by living amongst people with mixed culture, numerous languages and varied races.

She said India willingly chooses to share her riches with neighbouring countries even as it tries to uplift a vast section of her own people out of poverty.

High Commissioner Kantha said India's assistance for the people of Sri Lanka was not out of abundance, but out of desire to share whatever little India has in the spirit of kinship. He said both the ITEC programme and scholarship schemes are a key element of an important component of the 'Knowledge Initiative' launched during the visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India in June 2010.

He said the ITEC, initiated in 1964 as India's bilateral programme of assistance, is constantly re-designed and focused sharply on the needs of partners including Sri Lanka.