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        The Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee is being received by the Union Minister for Human Resource
    Development Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi at the inaugural function of the MHRD Conference on ‘Dialogue Among
Civilisations : Quest for New Perspectives’ in New Delhi. The Director General UNESCO, Mr. K. Matsuura and Shri
S.K. Tripathi, Secretary, MHRD are also seen.                                                             Detailed Report on page 6

New Initiatives on Strengthening of 
Teaching in Humanities, Social Sciences, 
Arts and Languages

         he     University     Grants    Commission
         constituted      a      Committee       with   
         Heads of the various National Councils for  education  and  research  in   Humanities, Social Sciences, Arts and Languages to help the UGC in delineating strategies and specific time-bound   action   plans   to   revamp   and strengthen  the  teaching  programmes in the Universities  and  Colleges.  The  Social  and Human sciences are going to be an important area  in  these   times   of    globalization   and liberalization. The growing interdependence of people’s lives calls for shared values and shared commitment to the human development of all the people. Thus, social sciences, which make systematic efforts to understand human relationships by the study of verifiable aspects of human behaviour and human sciences comprising the languages and iterature, the fine arts, philosophy and history, become important. It is here that teaching, learning and research 

in social and human sciences have to be re-elaborated in terms of conceptualization, formalization, and synthesis so as to transcend the frontiers of the new world with shrinking time, shrinking space and shrinking borders. The Committee consists of Dr. V.R. Panchamukhi, Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research, (ICSSR), Prof. M.G.S. Narayanan, Chairman, Indian Council of Historical Research, (ICHR), Dr. Kireet Joshi, Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), Smt. Suryakant Tripathi, DG, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, Shri Gopichand Narang, President, Sahitya Academi, Shri S.K. Tripathi, Secretary, MHRD, Shri Ravi Mathur, Joint Secretary, MHRD, Shri Dhanendra Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism & Culture, New Delhi, Shri K.Jayakumar, Joint Secretary. Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, New Delhi. Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai is the Chairman of the Committee.                         Contd. on page 6...    

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