Washington, Oct 31- India and the United States have started a dialogue to put in place a formal arrangement to promote partnerships between their institutions of higher learning before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh comes here in November.

The US education secretary Arne Duncan had responded positively to India's proposal for setting up an India-US Education Council much on the lines of India-US Business Council (USIBC), Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said at a news conference here Friday.

Sibal said he had proposed a body on the lines of USIBC, which promotes commercial relations between the two countries, in the education sector when the US Undersecretary of State William Burns came to New Delhi to prepare for the prime minister's visit.

"And I raised that issue with education secretary Duncan who said yes we should try and see if that's possible," he said.

"And so a dialogue has already started and hopefully the (Indian) ambassador here (Meera Shankar) will carry this dialogue further. And if that is possible maybe that's something that can be put in place before the prime minister comes," he said.

Asked if like the USIBC, the proposed body would be composed of top educational institutions of the two countries, Sibal said it would also in addition include representatives of the industry and entrepreneurs.

"The second reason for the visit is we wanted to see if we could actually start a dialogue with these universities so that down the road we could actually enter into some kind of a formal arrangement with these universities," he said.

Sibal, who is accompanied by leaders of some of India's top institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), said he had brought along the representatives of our 'navratnas' in the education sector.

"We also wanted to show case that we have quality institutions with the leadership which has brought education specially IITs and IIMs now being recognised by the world." (IANS)