The British Council today launched the 11th Language & Development Conference in New Delhi from November 18-20. This is the first time that this prestigious biennial conference has been held in India. The conference is being hosted in association with Deen Dayal Upadhya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) of the Ministry of Rural Development, UNESCO Cluster Office of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the National Multilingual Education Resource Consortium of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Research Council of UK.

The conference received over 155 proposals from over 40 countries and expects over 300 policymakers, academicians and researchers working in the area of languages and development from India, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. Around 30 of the presentations are by international speakers who will be discussing their work in a total of 20 different countries, from Sierra Leone to China, from Myanmar to Denmark and from Pakistan to South Africa. Some of the eminent speakers present at the launch were Rob Lynes (Country Director, British Council), Dr. Santhosh Mathew (Joint Secretary (Skills & IT) – Ministry of Rural Development GOI), Alisher Umarov, Osama Manzar, Minati Panda (Director National Multilingual education resource Consortium, JNU) and Geoffrey Crewes. 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 sub-themes: Multilingualism and the Metropolis; Language, Technology and Multi-literacies; and Multilingualism, Marginalisation and Empowerment.

Rob Lynes, Director, British Council India, says, “British Council is a firm supporter of the Language & Development Conference series because as UK’s cultural relations organization, 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.”

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