Kalam to be honoured by Canadian university

TORONTO - A top Canadian university will confer an honorary doctorate degree on former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam next week.

The University of Waterloo, in the city of BlackBerry, will host the renowned space scientist and honour him with an honorary degree in the humanities. The world famous university had also hosted the former Indian president during his visit here in April 2008 to deliver a public lecture on the subject of ‘Canada and India-Partnership in Global Development.’

During his visit, Kalam will also deliver a public lecture on the topic of ‘Science is Borderless: The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science.’

To be delivered in Toronto Sep 30, the lecture has been organized by the Canadian Club which often invites famous people from around the world to share their views on major issues.

Apart from visiting the University of Waterloo, the former president will also deliver lectures at the University of Toronto in Toronto, McMaster University in Hamilton near here, Brock University in St Catharines near Niagara Falls, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Kalam will also speak on the burgeoning Canada-India partnership at a luncheon Sep 29 at the Canada-India Mining and Metals Forum in Toronto. An Indian delegation led by Vijay Kumar, secretary in the ministry of mines, will attend the three-day forum from Sep 27.

“We have 30-35 participants coming for India to interact with Canadian mining companies and investors for promoting partnership between the two countries in this sector,” V.I. Lakshmanan, co-chair of the Forum, told IANS.

“We want to create synergy between our two countries to meet India’s need for resources as Canada is the only country which offers end-to-end solution for India’s needs,” he added.

Canada is the global leader in the mining sector, with the world’s largest number of mining companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The country hold an annual gathering of mining companies and investors each year under the auspices of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)