Blair Foundation keen to rope in Indian schools, varsities

Reaching out to students to promote inter-faith harmony, Tony Blair Faith Foundation today said it is keen to rope in more Indian schools and varsities to impart programmes that increase understanding of views of different religions on global issues such as environment, health and poverty.

The foundation which already has a presence in about 80 schools in the country under its 'face to faith' initiative is seeking to "expand the programme significantly" covering other schools, founder and patron of the foundation Tony Blair told reporters here.

Under this initiative, the schools are linked to others through IT to learn about each other, the attitude of different religions to global issues such as environment. The former British prime minister, who interacted with several religious leaders earlier in the day discussing the foundation's initiatives in education and health sectors, said they are also looking to add an Indian university along with eight other well-known universities abroad offering a course on 'faith and globalisation'.

"We are now in eight different universities worldwide and we want to add an Indian university or may be more than one," he said.

"The programme began in Yale and we are now in different universities, but we want to come and have an Indian partner university as well," he added.