Presidency University's bicentenary celebrations to go global

The bicentennial celebrations of the prestigious Presidency University - founded in 1817 as Hindu College - will be a national and international event, with seminars in Indian cities, Britain and the US, officials said.

"The bicentennial celebrations of Hindu College, today's Presidency University, will be a national and international project," Sugata Bose, chairperson of Presidency Mentor Group told the media here on Friday.

He said though the bicentennial year is scheduled in January 2017, lecture series and discussions will start at the end of this year itself.

"Alumni will participate and the focus will be on higher education in India, its history, current scenario, challenges and future scope. The celebrations will start in Delhi and then travel to other cities," he said.

Presidency University has its roots in the Hindu College, established in 1817, by a group of enlightened Indians and Englishmen.

It was rechristened Presidency College in 1855.

The previous Left Front government in the state upgraded it as a university in 2010.

Its alumni include Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Subhas Chandra Bose, Satyajit Ray, Marxist leader Jyoti Basu and India's first president Rajendra Prasad.

Bose said due to its connections with the Scottish Enlightenment (Scottish watchmaker and philanthropist David Hare was one of the founders), universities in England, Scotland in addition to the US will be involved. Nobel laureates will be invited for special sessions, he said.

"The list is yet to be finalised. There will be seminars, conferences and mini-conferences," physicist Bikash Sinha, a member of the university's governing council, told IANS.