Edu-leaders

India is likely to emerge as one of the most favourite higher and technical education destinations for Mongolian students due to its high level of education and its availability at reasonable costs, said Voroshilov Enkhbold, the Mongolian Ambassador to India at Shobhit University.

The ambassador visited the university following its initiatives taken last month. He hoped that the influx of Mongolian students in India shall see a high growth rate soon.

Voroshilov said, the Mongolian economy is expanding and it needs a large number of trained manpower. Since higher education options in the country are limited, people willing to acquire higher and technical knowledge need to be sent to other countries. In Soviet era, Mongolian students used to go to USSR, Hungary and East Germany but since the fall of socialist set up in USSR and emergence of democratic system in Mongolia, students began going to European and American universities. He told the audience that in the wake of developments in the recent past, Mongolian people have identified India as one of the important destinations to train and educate its people to fulfil the national requirements.

Reflecting upon Mongolia's relation with India, Enkhbold said that mostly Buddhist Mongolian people revere India as a holy place due to its relation with their highest religious teacher Lord Buddha. Mongolians cherish to come on pilgrimage to India at least once in their life. He revealed that the Mongolians revere holy Ganges as most of the Indians and sacred Ganges water is kept in every household as 'Holy Water'.

Praising the efforts of the Pro-Chancellor of the university Kunwar Shekhar Vijendra, Enkhbold said that Kunwar Shekhar understands educational needs of Mongolia better than him. Kunwar Shekhar had visited Mongolia in July in the delegation with the President of India, Pratibha Devi Singh Patil. He had meetings with the officials of universities and the education department of the Mongolian Government. Following those meetings, the Pro-Chancellor of Shobhit University had instituted scholarships for the Mongolian students as a gesture of goodwill.

Dr Swarup reflected upon the ties between the two countries in the medieval times and in the last 50 years. He hoped that Voroshilov's visit would generate a lot of goodwill between the two countries and he would ensure that Indian contribution to Mongolian development also encompasses the field of higher education.

Kunwar Shekhar expressed firm commitment of the university to participate in the development of Mongolia which is now among the future Global Growth Generator (3G) countries in the world. He assured the visiting ambassador that the Shobhit University along with other Indian universities are capable of taking care of all educational needs of Mongolian people.