By IANS,
Ahmedabad : A group of 33 non-resident Indian (NRI) students Friday visited the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad as part of the central government’s Know India Programme (KIP) that aims to associate younger generation of Indian diaspora with the country and its culture.
The students, who met Navdeep Mathur, a professor at IIM-A, reached Gujarat three days back.
KIP is also known as the Internship Programme for Indian Diaspora (IPDY).
The group – 19 girls and 14 boys, aged between 20 and 28 – has NRI students from Fiji, Guyana, Indonesia, Israel, Reunion Island, South Africa, the US, Britain and Trinidad.
One of the girl students praised the Amul model of development. “This growth without government help in the rural sector, thanks to initiatives like Amul, is praiseworthy,” she said.
A question was asked on Indian economic development after 1991 in the globalization era. “MacDonald’s do not bring burgers alone, they bring American culture too,” said Navdeep Mathur in jest.
Another girl wondered how effective is the implementation of laws in the country when the population growth has become unmanageable. Questions on higher education and many aspects of Indian social life were asked.
Mathur said that in India though people yearned to be wealthy, social status was no less important. “Expressions of social status are intricately bound with the importance of hierarchy in Indian society,” he said.
The KIP provides a unique forum to students of Indian origin to visit India and share their views, expectations and experiences.
These boys and girls had reached Valsad Sep 8 and visited Dandi (Surat) the next day. On Saturday, they will visit Somnath.