The Indian Council of Cultural Relations has appointed Padma Sri awardee and twice Central Sahitya Akademi award winner Y. Lakshmi Prasad as Founder Director of the Indian Cultural Centre at Toronto in Canada.
Dr. Lakshmi Prasad received the order of appointment issued by the ICCR Chairman Karan Singh here on Saturday.
This is for the first time that a Telugu scholar and a non-IFS man was made founder-Director of a ICC while two other noted scholars and non-IFS personalities Girish Karnad and Indranath Choudhury were appointed as Directors of ICCR’s centres in the past.
The former Andhra University professor, who is at present Chairman of the AP Hindi Academy, Official Language Committee of UGC and Lok Nayak Foundation and former Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language, was accorded diplomatic rank of Counsellor with representational grant and the pay and allowances that go with it to him and his family.
The tenure is for three years. Dr. Lakshmi Prasad has to look for accommodation for the ICC and has to organise literary and cultural events, programmes, etc. to propagate Indian culture.
He is leaving for the US on Monday and from there would go to Canada.
