The 2nd Annual Meeting of the UNESCO Chairs in India was hosted by the Academy of Engineering & Educational Research, MIT in Pune on 9-10th December, 2019. With the participation of 9 UNESCO Chairs in India, the meeting began with a welcome address by Dr. S.N Pathan (Strategic Advisor and National Coordinator, MIT) and Mr. Eric Falt (Director and UNESCO Representative, UNESCO New Delhi).
With the Chairs coming together after a year, the meeting included a session where each chair briefly presented the work that was undertaken by them. Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President of PRIA & Co-Chair, UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, brought the attention of the participants to “International Human Rights Day” which fell on 10th December. Describing how each chair could contribute towards tackling this issue and thus, could collectively better human dignity and rights in India to avoid leading to a fractured and violent society.