Current affairs

The Government of Finland discussed in its evening session on 7 November the shooting incident that had taken place in the Jokela School Centre. After the meeting, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen extended the Government’s heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of victims of the incident. During the evening session, the Government observed a short period of silence to commemorate the victims.

A total of 99 individuals have been nominated for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize, with candidates being proposed by 88 organisations in 27 countries. The world’s biggest technology award will be presented by Tarja Halonen, President of Finland, in June 2008.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen met with Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in New Delhi on Monday, 22 October. The IPCC shares this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore. Väyrynen and Pachauri concurred that the UN should strive to gather together all environment-related global negotiations processes and cooperation forums.

Dr. Paavo Väyrynen, the Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, will make a trade promotion trip to India on 21–26 October. The destinations will be New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. Travelling with the Minister will be a business delegation of about 20 people. The host of Minister Väyrynen’s visit to India is Minister for Commerce and Industry Mr. Kamal Nath.

"Poets of the Fall" of Finland will be the headlining act of IIT Kanpur's Rock Nite, Synchronicity, on 27 October. The Rock Nite will be the zenith of the University's cultural festival "Antaragni".

On 1st January 2007, Sitra the Finnish Innovation Fund and the Centre for International Mobility CIMO opened a new scholarship programme, which focuses on supporting the expert exchanges between Finland and India. The first Sitra Fellowship scholarships were awarded to Indian postgraduate students and researchers who will be working in Finland. In the first round, scholarships were awarded to five distinguished applicants.

Chennai’s Finnish community has started Suomi (Finland) School for school-age children. The school has three study groups based on age levels. Total number of students is nine.

The EU Film Festival showcases a package of 26 films from 23 EU Member States that give vivid reflections of the cultural streams of Europe and stories that describe the European life in a certain socio-economic and cultural environment.