New Delhi, June 9: India will try and operationalise at least two key collaborative education initiatives with the US in time for President Barack Obama’s visit in early November, Kapil Sibal said today.

Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had in Washington last November announced the “Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative” to enhance education collaboration between the two countries.

The Indo-US Education Council — a panel of academic and administrative representatives from both sides — was also announced during Singh’s visit.

But six months on, neither the knowledge initiative nor the council are even remotely close to being launched.

“The Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative and the Indo-US Education Council are both deliverables targeted for President Obama’s visit,” the human resource development minister told reporters today, returning from a nine-day visit to the US.

The knowledge initiative, aimed especially at strengthening faculty-exchange programmes between Indian and American institutions, is caught in a tug-of-war over who should implement the project.

The US wants the United States-India Educational Foundation to implement the project but the University Grants Commission here wants to be in charge.

The education council is yet to take off because US education secretary Arne Duncan — who had accepted the plan earlier — is not empowered to release any funds for international projects.

Only the state department under Hillary Clinton can release funds for collaborative projects with other countries. Sibal spoke to Hillary about the council during his visit and sources said the US secretary of state had agreed to release funds for the project.

Sibal said representatives from several top public and private universities in the US had told him during his visit that they were keen to collaborate with India on higher education and research.

The HRD minister’s visit was principally aimed at convincing US varsities to embrace the Foreign Educational Institutions (Entry and Operations) Bill. The legislation, tabled in the Lok Sabha, allows foreign varsities to set up campuses here and to offer joint degrees, diplomas and certificates with recognised Indian institutions.

“None of the universities I met had any significant objections to the provisions of the bill,” Sibal said. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — better known as Virginia Tech — has already purchased land in Tamil Nadu for a campus.

Sibal said several Indian entrepreneurs in the US had expressed interest in supporting collaborative initiatives with India.