Washington, June 13 (IANS) Thirteen Indian MPs from sevcn parties, including the spokesmen of both the Congress and the BJP, will attend a six-day leadership programme at Yale University this month.
Among the notable 2011 participants are Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot, Congress party spokesperson Manish Tewari and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Global political-economic affairs and the challenges of leadership are the focus of the fifth India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme from June 16 to 25 at the Ivy League university's New Haven, Connecticut campus. It will be complemented by a three-day programme of meetings, discussions, and interactions in New York City, the university announced.
In all, more than 60 members of India's parliament will have participated since Yale started the programme in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians in 2007.
The programme underscores "Yale's longstanding commitment to educating our students for service and leadership. We have now gone a step further to include emerging and midcareer leaders," Yale President Richard C. Levin stated.
"The programme will provide the parliamentarians with opportunities to critically think about the challenges of leadership and to explore freely, away from the legislative arena, the issues facing India," he said.
The programme "has been widely appreciated by those of us serving in politics. The presentations and discussions cover a range of topics and ideas, by and with some of the top academics in the world, and the setting is excellent for vigorous but non-partisan exchanges of views," said parliamentary forum chairman Baijayant (Jay) Panda.
"Yale University will help the parliamentarians in achieving a greater and more informed engagement in public policy discussions," said FICCI Secretary General Rajiv Kumar.
"With some of the world renowned experts of Yale, the parliamentarians get an opportunity to interact with them on a wide spectrum of global issues as well as on issues relating to leadership and management," said FICCI President Harsh Mariwala.