TN govt sanctions Rs.10 crore for Tamil chair at Harvard University

The Tamil Nadu government has sanctioned Rs.10 crore towards the setting up of a Tamil Chair at Harvard University in the United States and believe the move will give a huge impetus to research and preservation of the language.

Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami made the announcement on Friday and stated that the decision comes after two Tamilians based in the United States approached former CM J Jayalalithaa over the matter. She had then included this funding as part of her poll promises in 2016.

"I have directed that a sum of Rs. 10 crore be granted on behalf of theTamil Nadu government, which follows Amma’s (Jayalalithaa) footsteps, towards setting up a Tamil Chair at Harvard University and implement the (poll-time) promise,” Palaniswami said in a statement, according to The Hindu.

Once the chair is established, it is expected to pave way for research focused on Tamil language, history of Tamil rulers across the world, literature and and digitization of palm manuscripts. Six PhD scholars can be funded at any given time to carry out the research.

With this move, Tamil reportedly joins an elite club of six other classic languages including - Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chinese, Latin, Greek and Persian that have exclusive chairs at Harvard University. “We are proud that Tamil is the only language other than Sanskrit to be allotted a chair at the Harvard. And we are also equally proud that apart from Chinese, Tamil is the only living language to be accorded the honour,” Tamil Development Minister K. Pandiarajan told Deccan Chronicle.

Newsletter

Prime Minister Modi inaugurates Atal Tunnel - longest tunnel above 10000 ft

Ladakh: The Prime Minister today inaugurated the Atal Tunnel and took the inaugural drive through in the 9km long tunnel...

Orissa High Court Order regarding migrant workers entry into Orissa put on hold by the Supreme Court

The Orissa High Court order to permit the entry of migrant workers only if they tested Negative for COVID-19 was put on...

Coronavirus Lockdown - First Flights To Bring Back Indians Stranded Abroad Land In Kerala

On Monday, the central government announced plans to begin a massive repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad, dubbe...

Reacting to Trump's retaliation threat India allows Hydroxychloroquine export

In a move after Trump's threat to retaliate if India fails to send medicines, India has lifted ban of export of ess...

All Domestic Passenger Flights Suspended from Midnight Tomorrow

The operations of all domestic schedule commercial airlines will stop operations from 23.59pm on March 24, a government...

Iran says it ‘unintentionally’ shot down Ukrainian plane, blames ‘human error’

Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft. But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, sa...