New Delhi
May 13, 2010
(Press Information Bureau)

Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development has been conferred the Stephen P. Duggan Award for Mutual Understanding by the New York based Institute of International Education (IIE). In a letter to Shri Sibal, Allan E. Goodman, CEO of the IIE has written that this honour is for Shri Sibal’s “resolute support of global collaboration in education”. On a regular basis, the IIE recognizes outstanding accomplishment in government and education by the award of the Institute’s Stephen P. Duggan Award for Mutual Understanding, the highest honour of the institute. The award will be presented at their 2010 International Awards Gala, to be held this September in New York City.

Founded in 1919, IIE is among the world’s largest and most experienced international education and training organizations. More than 26,000 individuals from 175 countries participate in IIE programs each year. These include the Fulbright Programme, which IIE has administered on behalf of the U.S. Department of State since 1947, as well as the Scholar Rescue Fund. Sixty-two institute grantees, Trustees, and Fulbright alumni have been awarded Nobel Prizes.

The Institute’s Stephen P. Duggan Award for Mutual Understanding is named after the Institute’s first president, a professor of diplomatic history, who founded the Institute in 1919 with two Nobel Laureates, Elihu Root and Nicholas Murray Butler. The award is presented by the Institute’s Board of Trustees to distinguished world leaders in the fields of government, education and diplomacy in recognition of their lifetime of accomplishment and commitment to the causes that represent the underpinning of the Institute’s mission: a deep-seated belief that the world can be made a better and safer place through educational exchange and an understanding and appreciation of other peoples and other cultures.

The Stephen P. Duggan Award was established by IIE in 1990. Among the recipients of the Duggan Award in recognition of their government service include:

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
Former United States Secretary of State Madeline Albright
Former President of France Valery Giscard D’ Estaing
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson
Former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan

In recognition of their service to education, the Duggan Awardees include:
The Freeman Foundation
George Rupp, Former President of Columbia University
Her Excellency, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt