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NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 9:

        A resource centre for Italian studies will be inaugurated at the University of Madras on 10 February in order to give students an opportunity to get information related to the Italian language,

        While announcing this at a press meet held here yesterday, Vice- Chancellor of University of Madras S Ramachandran said this initiative would further strengthen the existing ties between the University of Madras and Embassy of Italy. The Embassy of France and Italian Cultural Institute, New Delhi, in collaboration with the university seek to commemorate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the varsity with a series of events.

        Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi is to deliver a lecture on higher education at the Senate House tomorrow. Prodi had received his doctorate from University of Madras in year 1998.

        Chairman of Chennai Regional Committee, Indo- Italian Chamber, Sauro Mezzetti, appreciating this collaboration, said Italy was looking forward to develop business links with Tamilnadu in various sectors including textile, mechanical and labour in which he said Tamilnadu had shown remarkable growth. He said 15 per cent of Italian companies had invested in Tamilnadu after Delhi and Maharashtra.

        A three- day exhibition on ancient Rome and India is also to be held in the university. The Department of French and other foreign languages in University of Madras had already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with University for Foreigners in Perugia. Through this collaboration, scholarship is provided to one student to study Italian language for three to six months in Perugia. Another MoU also exists between the Genetics Department in the University of Madras and University of Naples.

        The University of Madras already teaches Italian language to around 30 students. For this purpose, the Italian Cultural Institute in New Delhi had provided two Italian lecturers, one a native Italian and the other a locally recruited person.

        On these lines, Chinese and Japanese language learning courses are to be started in the University of Madras from next month for which an Chinese ambassador is to arrive here to look into various prospects of teaching the language. The Consulate General of Italy Fabio Rugge also spoke on the occasion.