Indian MPs to attend classes at Yale

In order to learn some tips of leadership, management and international relations, a team of young Indian parliamentarians, led by Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, will attend classes at America's Yale University later this month.

Classes will be held at the Yale University, New Haven Connecticut, from June 21 to 26 as part of India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme.

The programme launched in 2007 in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and India-US Forum of Parliamentarians is aimed at providing insight and perspective to young leaders by giving them the exposure of different fields and ideas.

Singhvi, member of Rajya Sabha (upper house), is the current Chair of the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians. Though the list is yet to be finalised, former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal-Secular; Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar; besides BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar and his party MP from Himachal Pradesh Anurag Singh Thakur are among those expected to attend the programme.

Two-time Congress MP Priya Dutt, young lawmaker Shruti Choudhary, daughter of Haryana Tourism Minister Kiran Choudhary; Ijyaraj Singh of Kota Royal family, who represents Kota constituency and Mohammad Hamdullah Sayeed, son of former Union Power Minister P M Sayeed, are also among the expected list of ten MPs.
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Lectures, discussions and private meetings with renowned practitioners in their areas will complement the curricular activities of the program.

Faculty for the program is drawn from experts at Yale as well as research institutes, government offices, and private sector.

Besides attending classes, the MPs will also travel to Washington to meet US lawmakers and have interactive sessions with the officials of the Obama Administration. Launching the program in 2007 the Yale President Richard C Levin said, "The program will provide the parliamentarians with opportunities to critically think about the challenges of leadership and to explore freely, away from the legislative arena, the issues facing India."
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Since 2004, Yale had held governmental programmes for senior leaders from China, Japan, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates.