Germany and India on Monday together decided for greater cooperation in two major fields -- education and railways. While an MoU was signed between the two countries to enhance digital infrastructure in India railways, an agreement was reached for promotion of select languages in the schools of either side. The two decided to resolve the contentious issue of Sanskrit being replaced by German at Central schools.
Regarding the Promotion of German as a Foreign language in India and the Promotion of Modern Indian languages (like Bengali, Tamil, Dogra, Konkani etc) in Germany, a letter of intent was signed between the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and HRD Ministry.
The inking of the pact comes as both sides were working to resolve the contentious issue of Sanskrit replacing German as third language in Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools, a decision which was criticised by Germany. The issue was also brought to the notice of PM Narendra Modi during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Brisbane last November.
Aiming at attracting investment in the modernisation and expansion of the railways, India agreed to open up commercial opportunities for German companies in the high-speed rail segment and station redevelopment plans.
Railways have offered massive investment opportunities at the proposed Diamond Quadrilateral project aiming to connect all four metro cities with high speed rail network. The public transporter has also offered private investment in the redevelopment of about 400 stations across the country.