The event in India was held at the Preet Nagar Cultural Centre, near Amritsar. Some two years ago, I had agreed to the request of Uma, a daughter of Gurbaksh Singh, to fund the construction of the Centre in her father’s memory along with another eminent writer, Nanak Singh.
Resolutions adopted by Chairpersons of South Asia Foundation Chapters on 15th December 2003, during the 3rd SAF General Conference in New Delhi - attended by Dr. Sayed Makhdoum Raheen (Afghanistan), Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral (India), Mr. Ibrahim Hussain Zaki (Maldives), Dr. Rita Thapa (Nepal), Mrs. Salima Hashmi (Pakistan), and Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar (Sri Lanka). Mr. Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup (Bhutan) was unable to attend the meeting because of a national emergency in his country and Dr. Kamal Hossain (Bangladesh) could not reach New Delhi on time.
Invited by the SAF Founder to attend the South Asia Foundation Learning Initiative meeting in New Delhi on 14th December 2003, Professor Ahmed Khan Tareen, Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University, submitted a training project at the Institute of Home Science (Kashmir University).
The third SAF General Conference in New Delhi on 14th December 2003 was a landmark – the vice-chancellors/rectors of South Asian open universities completed designing a joint Post Graduate Diploma course in the Environment and Sustainable Development (PGD-ESD), and SAF launched an unprecedented programme to offer over 10,000 SAF Madanjeet Singh scholarships to disadvantaged students across South Asia.
The meeting, after a formal inauguration by Shri I K Gujral, Chairperson SAF India, began with a formal welcome by Ambassador Madanjeet Singh.