Mongolia has conferred its highest civilian award “North Star” on two noted Indian scholars – Lokesh Chandra and Mansura Haider for their contribution to Mongolian studies.

• Mongolian Foreign Minister Lundeg Purevsuren conferred the award on Lokesh Chandra, president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and Mansura Haider, former academic adviser at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), at ceremony at the Mongolian embassy here which was also attended by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju.
• This year being the 60th Anniversary of Indo-Mongolian diplomatic relations, the award has been presented to two Indian scholars for their outstanding “contributions to the development of friendly relations between India and Mongolia and promotion of Mongolian studies”.
• Mansura Haider, who was a professor and former dean of the faculty of arts in Aligarh Muslim University’s history department, said was the first to give the Mongols an identity was misrepresented in history.

To reassess the contribution of Genghis Khan, ICCR is going to organize an International conference in Mongolia on “Genghis Khan, his legacy and Indian culture” concurrently with “International Mongolian Congress” in Ulaanbaatar in August.