In 1971 Professor V.K.R.V. Rao, the then Minister of Education/Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) and Chairman of the Central Sanskrit Board, planned the First International Sanskrit Conference. The two themes he suggested for the proposed Sanskrit Conference were the contribution of the various regions of the world to Sanskrit Studies and the contribution of Sanskrit to the advancement of knowledge in different regions of the world. This first Conference had to be postponed to 1972.