The teeming streets of Kolkata are where I now find myself, after the short flight over from Delhi late last night. It was past midnight when we arrived, so today is a bumper two day edition of this blog.

Firstly the final installment of my time in Delhi. I have very much enjoyed my time in the city and I know our delegation has made a great deal of progress – marked by, amongst other things, the opening of a new campus, the signing of new agreements and the securing of new contacts.

Yesterday was another busy day, which started with a keynote address to the annual – and very well attended – higher education summit organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). I was keen to stress the opportunities Scotland can offer India as a partner of educational and to chart out a way for these relationships to flourish. As they must, if we are both to meet our educational objectives.

The platform at FICCI had an international feel with representatives from Canada, the United States and Taiwan joining Indian speakers from academic, business and political backgrounds. Much of what was said focused on growth in education and it was interesting to hear Indian business leaders stressing the very real need to improve the skills across the country and across sectors.

After the conference, as some of you may have heard, I dialed into BBC Scotland for a live interview on the Good Morning Scotland programme. This was a useful opportunity to highlight the work we have all been doing to promote Scotland and our education system. Of course, the issue of the UK Government changes to the immigration system was also raised with me by Indian students, Indian academics and Indian media. It is more clear than ever that the proposal to limit the time overseas students can spend at UK universities is a particular concern to those who wish to study at our universities, given that our degrees tend to require four years rather than three.

Next on the agenda was another interview, this time for one of the largest Indian business news channels on television – CNBC 18. I had seen and spoken with the team already, as they have been filming a number of my engagements which they will use with my interview and interviews with others including university principals, Indian academics and Indian business leaders I’ve met to put together a feature on the visit of the Scottish delegation. This is a good opportunity to promote Scottish higher education with key players all over India and to further spread our message on Scotland’s potential as a partner in education.

Then I travelled to the Government quarter of the city to meet, for the second time, Kapil Sibal the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development who has responsibility for education (though he has recently had telecommunications added to his already massive brief – perhaps why there were no fewer than five telephones on his desk). The last time I met Mr. Sibal we witnessed the over arching Memorandum of Understanding between Universities Scotland and the Association of Indian Universities. Much progress has been made since then and we were able to update and consider future areas of co-operation.

Today in Kolkata has seen yet more progress in that regard with the University of Glasgow and the University of Calcutta singing an agreement to work together in a number of areas including arts research and museum studies – with the opportunity for a post-graduate student or member of staff from Kolkata to undertake a masters in museum studies at Glasgow.

The enduring cultural links between Scotland and Kolkata have been evident throughout today’s programme. I started off at the Scottish and Dissenters Cemetery in the heart of the city this morning. The last time I was there in 2009, the area was overgrown with jungle. Today I could see the scale of the progress that has been made with much of the area reclaimed and cleared free of the plants that were overpowering this small part of Scotland, where so many of the names on the graves are recognisably Scottish. Much work remains to be done however and I was pleased to hear the team are driving forward plans to restore the graves and train local people in these skills to help save other cemeteries and buildings in this great city.

Next on my agenda was the Scottish Church Collegiate School, which was founded in 1830 by the Rev. Dr Alexander Duff, who came to this city as the first missionary of the Church of Scotland to India. Today the school is one of the best in West Bengal and serves over 3,500 young people. The Headmaster, Mr. Bivash Saniel, and his staff are extremely proud of their links to Scotland and were very happy to be the first school in India to be given access to an online library of over 36,000 images and videos of Scotland provided by SCRAN.

While in the school I also had the opportunity to speak to a number of teachers and I was intrigued by the issues they raised including frustration with the constraints they feel are placed on them by a uniform syllabus and the pressure to teach pupils to pass an exam, not to develop knowledge and skills. Of course I found this particularly interesting given the focus we now have on Curriculum for Excellence which gives teachers more freedom to teach.

A short walk through the bustling streets of Kolkata (and past a very colourful Jain procession) took us on to the Scottish Church College, where I learned about their plans for collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University for a Centre for Tagore Studies. During the discussion we touched on the similarities between Tagore and Robert Burns and the plans to hold an exhibition on both the Indian and Scottish bards at the Robert Burns birthplace museum in Alloway next year.

Tonight I will be speaking at a reception for Kolkata based alumni of Glasgow University. I am sure I will hear many fond memories of Scotland.