Udupi: “Sanskrit is the base for many Indian languages and there is need to conserve and popularise Sanskrit. So, conserving and developing Sanskrit should be the top priority of governments,” said Union Human Resource Department Minster Prakash Javadekar.

He was speaking at fifth All India Convention organised by Sanskrita Bharathi at Rajangana, Udupi on Sunday.

“Sanskrit is considered as an important language of communication and it prefers to the welfare of this country also. At present French, German and Mandarin are the mostly offered languages in India. Instead of foreign language Indian languages should be promoted in schools,” he said.

He added that universities imparting Sanskrit education have to submit action plans formulated to teach Sanskrit language, following which the government will take action for capacity build up of Sanskrit Universities.

On forming a new education policy, the minister said that suggestions from various stakeholders are invited.

“A committee led by eminent educationist would review the suggestions before embarking upon the final draft notification. He said that a request by Karnataka government to provide 25% seat reservation at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dharwad for Kannadigas residing in Karnataka is rejected as no state has reservation or role in reservation,” he added.

Lauding the prime minister for demonetisation, Javadekar said every decision taken by Modi aims for justice to the poor and employment is the priority. Besides, demonetisation has supported the idea of development and proved an important step to curb corruption and black money.