BRITISH COUNCIL TO HOST LANGUAGE CONFERENCE

The British Council announced here on Saturday that it would host the 11th Language and Development Conference in New Delhi from November 18-20. The conference is being held in association with Deen Dayal Upadhya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) of the ministry of rural development, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Research Council of UK. This conference is expected to attract over 300 policymakers, academicians and researchers working in the area of languages and development from India, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. Some of the eminent speakers who will be present at the conference are Ajit Mohanty, Osama Manzar, Rukmini Banerji, Birgit Brock-Utne, James Simpson and Srikant Sarangi. This is the first time that India will be hosting this prestigious international conference. The conference’s main theme will be - ‘Multilingualism and Development’ with three subthemes: Multilingualism and the Metropolis; Language, Technology and Multi-literacies and Multilingualism, Marginalisation and Empowerment. Rob Lynes, director, British Council, said, “British Council is a firm supporter of the Language and Development Conference series because as UK’s cultural relations organisation, 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.”