Some of the best American universities and educational institutes are "extremely interested" in coming to India and are eagerly waiting for the relevant law to be put in place so that they can move forward, Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, has said.

"They are not only extremely interested, but they are also proactive in expressing their hope that the law (in India) would be put in place very soon so that actually they can come forward and come to India as foreign education providers," Sibal told Indian reporters, winding up his week-long visit to the US last evening.

During his visit to New York and Washington, Sibal met presidents of a number of best US universities, including those of the Harvard University, Boston University, Yale University and MIT.

He also met US Secretary for Education, Arny Duncan and the two leaders agreed to establish a US-India Education Council, which would comprise top American academicians, university officials and representatives from other educational institutions so as to promote public-private partnership in India's higher education sector.

Sibal yesterday had a roundtable with representatives of other top US universities from various parts of the country; besides meeting eminent Indian-American academicians and a delegation of PANIIT.

Describing his visit as "exceptionally satisfying", the minister said that during his meetings he explained that "we are reforming our education system and setting up a number of educational institutions.

"We also indicated to them we are hopefully going to introduce the Foreign Education Providers' bill as and when it gets cleared from the Cabinet."

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