'11th Language and Development Conference' launched by the British Council

The British Council in association with Deen Dayal Upadhya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) of the Rural Development ministry, UNESCO Cluster Office of Bangladesh and others launched the '11th Language and Development Conference' in New Delhi today, which will be hosted from November 18 to 20. This is the first time that this prestigious biennial conference will take place in India.

The conference received over 155 proposals from over 40 countries and expects over 300 policymakers, academicians and researchers working in the area of languages and development from India, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world.

Around 30 of the presentations are by international speakers who will be discussing their work in a total of 20 different countries, from Sierra Leone to China, from Myanmar to Denmark and from Pakistan to South Africa.

Some of the eminent speakers present at the launch were Rob Lynes (Country Director, British Council), Dr. Santhosh Mathew (Joint Secretary (Skills & IT) - Ministry of Rural Development GOI), Alisher Umarov, Osama Manzar, Minati Panda (Director National Multilingual education resource Consortium, JNU) and others.

Rob Lynes, Director, British Council India, said, "British Council is a firm supporter of the Language and Development Conference series because as UK's cultural relations organization, we believe that multiple languages sustain cultural diversity which has long term and sustained effect in securing peace and prosperity for us as individuals, for our communities and for our countries."

The Language and Development series is held every two years that explores the role of language in development. It addresses issues of world, national, second and minority languages and the role they play in economic, social and cultural development; language policy, conflict transformation, language rights and identity; communication, education and development and language pedagogy.