Cuttack, Nov. 15: Educational and cultural attache of the Embassy of Indonesia in Delhi Iwan Pranato today called for cultural exchange between the two countries.

He was talking at a conference organised by the Kalinga Lanka Foundation as part of the Kalinga-Indonesia Dialogue at Ravenshaw University. With former Indian Ambassador to US Lalit Mansingh as moderator, the post-lunch session dwelled on the agenda for research and cultural co-operation.

Pranato said: "We can handle pluralism only through cultural exchange. And this should start with education."

He said: "We should identify the problems and face them together. The first in the agenda should be education, especially among the marginalised."

Ravenshaw University political science professor Niranjan Barik suggested opening of a centre for Indonesian studies at the university and a similar centre for Kalinga/Odisha studies at the University of Indonesia. He said: "They will foster collaboration between the two countries in different disciplines."

Barik said: "Though Ravenshaw University had established limited partnership with foreign institutions and universities (in US, Germany and Japan), it has huge potential for collaboration with universities in South East Asia in general, but Indonesia in particular."

"The same can be said of Utkal University, which in addition to having a few hundred affiliated colleges has at present 27 post-graduate departments offering research programmes," he added.

Barik said the areas of study and collaboration could include politics and public policy, information technology, oceanography, disaster management, environmental studies, tourism, dance and culture, agriculture, literature and languages, management studies, history and social anthropology depending on the expertise and facilities of institutions.

On being asked by the moderator as to whether Ravenshaw University is equipped to take foreign students, vice-chancellor Prakash Chandra Sarangi said: "Unless the university gets proper autonomy to decide these matters away from government control nothing can be done."

"While infrastructure to house foreign students is minimal, our challenge at present is that the institution is managed with minimum budget," Sarangi said. He, however, said: "The varsity is ready to host academic programme if any Indonesian university is willing to have partnership."