Vinay Sahasrabuddhe appointed as President of ICCR

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe as President of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).
He will succeed scholar and thinker Lokesh Chandra, who was appointed by the NDA government in October 2014 and has completed his three-year-term.
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is BJP’s national vice-president and is also a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra. He is vice-president of Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini which is South Asia’s only training and research academy for elected representatives and voluntary social workers. He had headed BJP’s training cell for over a decade and at present was national in-charge of two departments of the party — Policy Research and Good Governance.

Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)

The ICCR is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of External Affairs. It was founded in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India’s first Education Minister. It is involved in India’s external cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their peoples.
Its mandate is to actively participate in formulation and implementation of policies and programmes pertaining to India’s external cultural relations. It also seeks to foster and strengthen cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other countries. It also aims to promote cultural exchanges with other countries and people; and to develop relations with nations.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2017