Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 1: Director General of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, Amb Chinthapally Rajasekhar visited the regional office of ICCR here today.
He was received by the Regional Director ICCR Jammu, Balwant Thakur and the staff members and was taken around an exhibition of posters entitled ‘Three and half years of ICCR in Jammu’. Balwant Thakur apprised the Director General about the activities and programmes of the Jammu centre, particularly the innovative initiatives of the Regional office in designing, presentation, documentation and projection of the local talent at the national and international level.
DG ICCR desired Balwant Thakur to devise programmes of world class representing the diverse artistic expressions of the J&K State for its showcasing at the International level. He appreciated the initiatives of Jammu office in professionally conceptualizing wide range of programmes covering almost all the representative art forms of the region. He stressed on the need of joining hands with local Government departments and the organizations in the larger interest of the fulfillment of the mandate of ICCR.
Rajasekhar was earlier the Indian Ambassador to Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Previously, he served as Minister, Political Media and Education in London, Minister in Seoul, Counsellor in Port of Spain, First Secretary/Head of Chancery in Tokyo, Second Secretary in Ulaanbaatar and Third Secretary/Second Secretary in Tokyo. As Ambassador, he has organized two large Indian Cultural festivals in Cuba. In February 2015, India was the “Guest of Honour Country” at the prestigious Havana International Book Festival, becoming the first Asian country to be bestowed this high honour. Earlier, he has worked in organizing fifty cultural events in Japan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of India-Japan diplomatic relations in 2002.
ICCR has been envisaged as an organization that fosters and strengthens the cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other nations. Its objective is also to promote a communion of cultures and a creative dialogue among nations and facilitate this interaction among world cultures.
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