This post is a guest contribution by Lavika Bhagat
REPORT OF THE EVENT ORGANIZED BY INOC, DC CHAPTER
Indian National Overseas Congress (USA) Washington DC Chapter proudly hosted a reception in honor of Honorable Kapil Sibal ji, senior leader of the Indian National Congress Party, Minister for Human Resources and Development, Government of India on October 15, 2011 at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Washington DC.
Minister Sibal co-chaired the US-India Higher Education Summit with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Oct 13 and 14, 2011 at Washington DC. After this high-profile conference, Minister Sibal attended this personable breakfast gathering with a group of Indian American business and education leaders invited by Lavika Bhagat Singh, President of the Indian National Overseas Congress in Washington DC.
Attendees included representatives of the US Federal and State Government, prominent Indian Americans, IT industrialists, educationists, and Indian students studying in the Washington DC area. Among the many prominent Indian Americans were Dr. Natwar M. Gandhi, the Chief Financial Officer for Washington DC, Rajan Natarajan, Deputy Secretary of State of Maryland, Sanjay Rai, Provost and Dean, Montgomery College, State of Maryland, Raj Narsimhan who serves on Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Higher Education Reform, Innovation and Investment.
In his hour-long speech, Minister Sibal laid out a range of challenges the world will be facing in the next decade, including population explosion, water pollution and food and energy shortages. For India, he noted, the biggest challenge and opportunity at the same time, is education. In his heartfelt speech, he called on the American higher education institutions to change their mindset and bring broad-based quality education to the vast Indian population. Speaking about the future of education, he envisioned that the nature of delivery of educational services will be completely different from what we experienced before. He believes, customized learning across cultures will be the dominant theme of higher education. He said, “We need to open up the university as a learning space, embrace collaborative knowledge production, and break down the walls between institutions. I foresee a day where an engineering student from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) can register for a liberal arts course offered by Yale while simultaneously enrolling for an economics course in Stanford. The university as a physical entity may no longer remain the unit of learning space.”
Speaking at the meeting, Maryland’s Secretary of State John McDonough, who will be part of a delegation from Maryland led by Governor Martin O’Malley to visit India next month, emphasized the friendship and future opportunity between Maryland and India and presented a Maryland state flag and a state lapel pin to Minister Sibal.
Educators from the Washington area, including Dr. Joseph Drew, Senior Editor, Journal of Comparative Civilizations, Professor of University of Maryland, Dr. Walter Andersen, Director, SAIS, John Hopkins University and professors from University of District of Columbia, joined in this meeting. Others included Dr. Robert Verhalen, US Safety Commission -Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology in 1973 -1995, currently Board member of the University of North Carolina.
Marty Martin, President of Institute of Excellence and Innovation for Education and CEO, University of North America, along with UoNA Chancellor Dr. Benjamin Davis, discussed with the Minister the impact of technology and the exciting innovation in American higher education. Martin also presented a higher education white paper to Minister Sibal..
Senior Indian American members of the Information Technology Industry included Vic Malhotra, President, Subsystem Technologies, Inc., Sam Malhotra, CEO, Subsystem Technologies, Inc., Zalmi Azmi, Senior Vice President, CACI, Chief of Cyber Security, Sirini Gurikapati, CEO, Leventure, Aditya Karagadda, Vice President, Leventure.
List of other attendees:
Rhonda S. Binda, Deputy Director, Global Intergovernmental Affairs, State Department
Linda Jameson, President, US Institute for Economics & Peace
Sherry Tross, Assistant Secretary General Organization of American States
Barbara Lang, President, CEO Washington DC Chamber of Commerce
Sheree Tsai Member of the Virginia State Board for Professional & Occupational Regulation
David Quang, Sr. Budget Officer, US Transportation Security Administration
Warren Whitlock, Administrator, Federal Highway Authority
Roger Lerner, JD Former Director of Federal Pension Retirement Program
David Morgan, Exec. VP Government Relations, American Express
Aaron Manaigo, Managing Partner, Global Political Solutions
Sherry Tross, Assistant Secretary General Organization of American States
Christine Warnke, Senior Governmental Affairs Advisor, Hogan & Lovells
Messages received post meeting:
“I want to thank you so very much for inviting me to the Indian National Overseas Congress event on Saturday. It was simply a great event and I learned so much. Your group is doing a great job in developing linkages between the two nations. Please keep me posted for future forums such as the one I attended this past Saturday.
Hopefully, you can assist me in traveling to India one of these days. Thank you again.”
Mayor Eugene W. Grant
City of Seat Pleasant, Maryland
“It is my pleasure to applaud the Indian National Overseas Congress, USA (INOC – USA) for its outstanding professionalism with its preparation and execution of the meeting held with the Honorable Minister Kapil Sibal in Washington, D.C. It was a superb event arranged and an organized with superior quality in amazing speed by the INOC-USA, Washington DC Chapter. It was truly an unforgettable experience for all that participated.
We were all gratified and honored to hear the Honorable Minister’s presentation that provided us all with much needed hope in these times of global economic distress. More importantly to me was learning that we share common beliefs and goals. Specifically it is imperative for the continued well being of our respective economies, perhaps even for the world, that together we kindle the power of human innovation via the provision of affordable quality education that is distributed and made accessible to the broadest possible base of our populations. We sincerely look forward to the INOC-USA, Washington DC Chapter future events, both in India and in the USA that will with God’s grace ultimately ensure our countries the necessary abundance required to secure the future well being of our societies and our citizens.”
Marty Martin – President, Institute of Excellence and Innovation for Education
“On behalf of the University of North America, I want to thank you and the Indian National Overseas Congress, USA, for the splendid meeting you led. The opportunity to interact with others concerned about education in and for India was a real blessing and encouragement. I was also gratified to hear the presentation by the Honorable Minister Kapil Sibal. Many of his goals and concerns directly parallel those of our university. As with Minister Sibal, our university’s commitment is to bring a high quality education at the lowest possible cost to people who otherwise would be unable participate. We believe this is the best way to achieve long term, lasting economic development that will positively affect the lives of people. We look forward to further opportunities to work with the INOC-USA to accomplish these objectives.”
Benjamin G. Davis, Ph.D., D.Min.
Chancellor, University of North America.
“Lavika,
Wanted to drop a quick note to you for inviting us to the breakfast on Saturday. I must say that we were very impressed with how the whole event was organized and conducted. Of course, the highlight was hearing Shri Kapil speak. He is very articulate and knowledgeable on a wide range of topics. It was quite enlightening.
Thank you for the opportunity.
..Raj”
Raj Narasimhan
