Keyword: india

In an exclusive interview at Asia Society in New York (embedded below), Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen responded to news that former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam would no longer be associated with the revival of Nalanda University, one of the oldest universities in the world.

Sen said the position of "visitor" — responsible for monitoring and reviewing the functions of a university in India — is meant to be held by the current president. "Now," Sen said, "Dr. Kalam decided that since he’s no longer president it would be only appropriate that it should go to the present president."

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has agreed to be visitor, he said.

He also stressed that Nalanda is still in a "formative" stage. He added, "There has to be some kind of intelligent merging of the short-run challenges with the long-run challenges to be met."

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