Kalam revives 247-year-old India ties at Trinity College
Dublin: Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has launched a twin India-focussed initiative at the Trinity College in Dublin during a visit that helped spark a renewed interest in India at the 417-year-old university. The university announced the establishment of an India chair and a post in Indian studies to coincide with Kalam's visit on Friday - held amid a warming of India-Irish ties and plans for greater collaborations in education and science and technology. The post in Indian studies has been sponsored by groups representing the 25,000-strong Indian community in Ireland while the India Chair will be funded by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), Trinity Provost John Hegarty said. The university hopes the move will attract more Indian students, particularly in the fields of science and technology, where the numbers of Irish students have been falling. "At the moment we have around 100 Indian students. We can quadruple that without a problem," Hegarty told