8 university tie-ups picked for Obama-Singh awards

A series of institutional partnerships aimed at propelling research and training in the field of energy security, climate change, agriculture sciences and health services are part of the Obama-Singh Initiative announced recently. As part of the bilateral education partnership, eight collaborative efforts have been awarded. Among the India-led partnerships include tie-ups between Rutgers University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to establish a national vocational school in India that will eventually train up to 1 million people every year.

The vocational school has been designed to assist up to 80% Indian graduates considered unemployable by multinational companies and to increase the number of young people taking part in formal vocational education and training (just 4% of the population). For India, the most pressing need is to reform its higher education and widen the skill development system, developing scalable solutions that can rapidly enhance the quality and quantity of educational opportunities available to the 550 million Indians under the age of 25.

US-led partnerships include University of Montana and Bangalore University addressing impact of climate change and changes in socio-economic structure on traditional agriculture and development of sustainable communities among indigenous populations. Cornell University with University of Agricultural Sciences , Dharwad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, will work on implementing reformed curriculum in emerging areas of agriculture and food security. University of Michigan has tied up with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences to jointly develop a masters degree for health profession faculty in the US and India. The programme will include public health, nursing, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and Indian systems of medicine.

Other India-led partnerships were between Mahatma Gandhi University and Brown University, Duke University and Plymouth State University to study an interdisciplinary and community oriented approach toward sustainable development. Banaras Hindu University will partner with University of Pittsburgh to research the paradigm shift in energy scenario for the 21st century toward renewable energy sources required for both India and the US. While IIT-Kanpur is expected to join hands with Virginia Tech for an international programme on sustainable infrastructure development, its Delhi counterpart will work on resource building for ecosystem and human health risk assessment with special reference to microbial contamination with Drexel University.

According to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), each project will receive an award of $250,000 that can be utilized over the three year grant period, with the aim of encouraging mutual understanding , educational reform and economic growth. PM Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama had committed $5 million each as part of the endeavour to build an enhanced India-US partnership in education.

Apart from the Obama-Singh Initiative, India has also planned to establish 100 community colleges. It has also announced the C V Raman Fellowship with the first tranche of 300 junior faculty members to be placed for post-doctoral research in American higher education institutions in October. About 10,500 faculty members will be sent over five years.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), June 26, 2012

India to grant $1.5 million to Chicago varsity for Vivekananda Chair

India will provide a grant of $1.5 million to the University of Chicago to establish a Vivekananda Chair for Indian studies, as part of the initiatives to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the 19th century luminary, Swami Vivekananda, and polymath Rabindranath Tagore. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in this regard between Dean of University of Chicago (UOC) Martha Roth and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Culture Sanjiv Mittal, in the presence of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Mr. Mukherjee on Sunday dedicated a plaque of Swami Vivekananda at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) and inaugurated a Tagore art exhibition here, to mark the 150th birth anniversaries of Swami Vivekananda and Tagore. The grant is meant to honour Swami Vivekananda’s life and legacy and facilitate exchange of research scholars from/to India.

Martha Roth, Dean of the Humanities and the Chauncey S. Boucher Professor of Assyriology; and Dipesh Chakrabarty, the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History and South Asian Languages and Civilizations, also spoke about Swami Vivekananda’s contribution to religious freedom, which opened the doors of religious tolerance between the East and the West. Also present was Chicago Consul-General of India Mukta Dutta Tomar. University students also performed dance and music at the event. The University also did a live webcast of the event that could be viewed from the “UChicago Live” tab in the UChicago Facebook page.

“Swami Vivekananda was practically India’s first cultural ambassador to the United States,” Mr. Mukherjee said at Fullerton Hall, where Vivekananda had delivered the famous and historic address at the Parliament of the World Religions in 1893 to tremendous applause.

Source: The Hindu, January 30, 2012

US to help Indian students make informed choice: Hillary Clinton

The US is expanding its advising services for Indian students to make sure they do not fall for “misleading offers” from dubious institutions and is also keen to encourage more American students to enroll in varsities in India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.

Addressing the first ever India-US Higher Education Summit at the prestigious Georgetown University here, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US wants the relationship between the two “great democracies” to be as interconnected as possible at every level and not just at the government to government level, which is just the beginning and “clearly not the most important and lasting collaboration that we seek.”

While 100,000 Indians are currently studying at various US universities, “we want to see more American students enrolling for academic credit at Indian institutions. The US government is fully committed to enhancing this academic cooperation,” she said.

Clinton said the US is also expanding its EducationUSA advising services for Indians and families to provide accurate information about opportunities to study here and help students “sort out misleading offers that come over the Internet.”

She said those offers flood into homes across India giving young Indian students the idea that certain approaches will work for them when in fact it is a “dead end”. “We don’t want to see that happen. We want to see real exchanges with credible institutions and we will do everything we can to support that.”

Early this year, the Tri Valley University in California shut down after an alleged immigration scam, putting the future of a large number of Indian students in jeopardy.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), October 13, 2011

Indo-US coop in education field poised for major expansion

India-US cooperation in the field of education is poised for major expansion, Indian envoy to the US said ahead of the next week’s major summit between the two countries on the issue. “India-US cooperation in the field of education is today poised for major expansion,” Nirupama Rao, Indian Ambassador to the US said while addressing at the Yale University on “Future Direction in India-US relations”.

“We in India see education as critical for achieving its goals to have inclusive growth and to realise the potential for taking the Indian economy to even higher growth trajectory,” she said. The Ambassador said that India has announced major initiatives for massive expansion and upgradation of the education infrastructure, both in the primary education sector and also in the higher education.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and India’s Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal would attend the India-US Higher Education Summit on October 13. “The Summit will bring together not just government officials but also academics and entrepreneurs who are engaged in this area and will provide a platform to develop a blueprint for furthering our horizons in this area,” Rao said.

Yale, she said, has had a historical connection with India that goes back more than three centuries beginning with Eliahu Yale and his days in Madras (now Chennai). Yale has been a pioneer among the US universities when it comes to the study of India – its languages, literature, religions, history, and its politics, economics and society.

“I understand Yale was the first US University to start teaching Sanskrit. Many eminent Indians and Indian-Americans have passed through its portals. Yale is today not only continuing its tradition of engagement but has strengthened it and extensively broadened it through the Yale India Initiative that was launched in 2008,” she said.

India-US relationship she said is a partnership that seeks to meet common aspirations for mutual prosperity and for peace and security.

Source: The Times of India (Online Edition), October 5, 2011

U.S. varsity keen on partnering with innovation universities

India’s plan to enlist international institutes to partner its proposed innovation universities has received a boost, with the University of Illinois from the U.S. expressing interest. The university’s interim Chancellor Robert A. Easter and three of his colleagues, including Assistant Vice-Chancellor for public engagement Pradeep Khanna, met Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal on Monday to discuss a partnership, according to two ministry officials.

India has decided to set up 14 innovation universities, which will be research-oriented campuses that will not be controlled by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the university regulator. Each university will have a theme to focus on.

“Illinois University is interested for partnering with an innovation university with bio-science and agriculture (as its focus theme),” said one of the two officials cited above. The official, who didn’t want to be named, said although Sibal had received some positive signals from U.S. educational institutes during his visit to that country last month, this is the first time that a leading university had sent a delegation to India to discuss the proposal. The second official said foreign collaboration and funding will “boost higher education through a research-oriented mindset”, adding that Easter was told to be in touch with the government’s Department of Biotechnology for a detailed discussion. He also didn’t want to be named.

As reported by Mint on August 3, the draft bill to set up the innovation institutions allows each university to set its own policy to attract faculty members from India and abroad and hire them directly, offering wages and perks that it deems fit.

The proposed innovation universities will have the potential to develop into leading research hubs, making them attractive to foreign educational institutions, said Narayanan Ramaswamy, Executive Director (Education) at consulting firm KPMG India. “Hence, these are the right place to invest (in),” he said.

Source: Mint, October 7, 2010

U.S. varsity keen on partnering with innovation universities

India’s plan to enlist international institutes to partner its proposed innovation universities has received a boost, with the University of Illinois from the U.S. expressing interest. The university’s interim Chancellor Robert A. Easter and three of his colleagues, including Assistant Vice-Chancellor for public engagement Pradeep Khanna, met Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal on Monday to discuss a partnership, according to two ministry officials.

India has decided to set up 14 innovation universities, which will be research-oriented campuses that will not be controlled by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the university regulator. Each university will have a theme to focus on.

“Illinois University is interested for partnering with an innovation university with bio-science and agriculture (as its focus theme),” said one of the two officials cited above. The official, who didn’t want to be named, said although Sibal had received some positive signals from U.S. educational institutes during his visit to that country last month, this is the first time that a leading university had sent a delegation to India to discuss the proposal. The second official said foreign collaboration and funding will “boost higher education through a research-oriented mindset”, adding that Easter was told to be in touch with the government’s Department of Biotechnology for a detailed discussion. He also didn’t want to be named.

As reported by Mint on August 3, the draft bill to set up the innovation institutions allows each university to set its own policy to attract faculty members from India and abroad and hire them directly, offering wages and perks that it deems fit.

The proposed innovation universities will have the potential to develop into leading research hubs, making them attractive to foreign educational institutions, said Narayanan Ramaswamy, Executive Director (Education) at consulting firm KPMG India. “Hence, these are the right place to invest (in),” he said.

Source: Mint, October 7, 2010

U.S., India finalize varsity partnership programme

Ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit in November, the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative has been finalised with both the governments pledging US $ 5 million each that will fund university partnerships and faculty development. The Obama-Singh Initiative (OSI) was announced last November to build an enhanced India-U.S. strategic partnership in education. With the OSI in place it remains to be seen if the U.S.-India Joint Council on education takes shape or not before Obama’s visit.

In order to implement the initiative, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the U.S. embassy in India will establish the Obama-Singh Joint Working Group with three members each from both sides. The JWG will finalise the governing policy direction and provide final approval for all grants that will be given by the OSI. The OSI will also identify areas for grants, determine the number and amount of grants, approve requests for proposals for grants, and evaluate and award the grants. The entire process will be transparent and merit-based. No institution will get more than one grant.

The U.S. embassy in India will contribute US $ 5 million to the United States-India Educational Foundation that will draft the request for proposal announcement for U.S. higher education institutions. The U.S. embassy will also administer grants to U.S. institutions whose university partnership programmes are selected by the JWG.

Source: The Times of India, September 10, 2010

US, India finalize varsity partnership programme

Ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit in November, the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative has been finalised with both the governments pledging US $ 5 million each that will fund university partnerships and faculty development. The Obama-Singh Initiative (OSI) was announced last November to build an enhanced India-U.S. strategic partnership in education. With the OSI in place it remains to be seen if the U.S.-India Joint Council on education takes shape or not before Obama’s visit.

In order to implement the initiative, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the U.S. embassy in India will establish the Obama-Singh Joint Working Group with three members each from both sides. The JWG will finalise the governing policy direction and provide final approval for all grants that will be given by the OSI. The OSI will also identify areas for grants, determine the number and amount of grants, approve requests for proposals for grants, and evaluate and award the grants. The entire process will be transparent and merit-based. No institution will get more than one grant.

The U.S. embassy in India will contribute US $ 5 million to the United States-India Educational Foundation that will draft the request for proposal announcement for U.S. higher education institutions. The U.S. embassy will also administer grants to U.S. institutions whose university partnership programmes are selected by the JWG.

Source: The Times of India, September 10, 2010

New Indo-U.S. council to boost education

The enhanced partnership between the Indian and American governments in several spheres has also brought about significant changes in the education sector. The two countries are now working closely towards setting of an Indo-U.S. Education Council. The council will ensure greater cooperation in the sector.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who was part of a high-level Indian delegation to the U.S., said: “The council will be in place before the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to India. It will be formally announced at that time”. The minister said the council would involve academicians, entrepreneurs and government representatives as its members.

Sibal, who had met U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton and discussed bilateral cooperation in education, said the two countries were working towards “equivalence of educational degrees”. He said, “We are working towards evolving a basic minimum procedure for equivalence of degrees”.

As far as the foreign education providers’ Bill was concerned, the minister, who met the heads of various U.S. higher education institutions, said they were keenly awaiting the passing of the legislation. The Bill has been referred to a standing committee. “We must first decide whether this Bill is good for us or not. We will lose out on big investment opportunities if we reject this Bill”, Sibal said.

Source: Mail Today, June 10, 2010

Infosys & Georgia Tech plan R&D hub in Hyderabad

Georgia Institute of Technology is planning to establish a small but top quality post-graduate research institution in Hyderabad in collaboration with Infosys Technologies – one of India’s largest IT companies. The proposed facility will include centers for excellence in information technology and information systems, energy systems, biotechnology and infrastructure studies, a top university official said.

The initiative is an outcome of the welcome given to foreign universities by human resource minister Kapil Sibal and the recent introduction of the Foreign Universities Bill in Parliament. Such an avenue for the higher education system in India has been hanging in fire for several years due to opposition from critics who feared it would make Indian higher education westernised and elitist.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed in this regard by Gary Schuster, Georgia Tech’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Infosys CEO S. Gopalakrishnan. “Since Infosys has a presence both in Atlanta and Hyderabad, there are collaborative opportunities in both locations. Such alliances are critical to our goal of developing a global university and to enhancing closer educational, scientific and economic ties between the U.S. and India”, said Schuster.

According to him, for the past several years the partnership between Georgia Tech and Infosys has been strong in Atlanta, where the company has rapidly expanded its local workforce by hiring several hundred engineers. “Georgia Tech faculty and Infosys’ engineers and scientists will now have the opportunity to work together on emerging computing and web technologies that promise to add new efficiencies of cost and scale to rapidly expand markets in retail, manufacturing, commerce, energy and finance”, Schuster added.

“We are hopeful that the passage of this (University) bill will allow us to expand our proposed activities beyond the research focus, to include an educational program that will offer Georgia Tech Ph.D. and master’s degrees to students in India”, said Vijay Madisetti, Executive Director of Georgia Tech’s India initiative.

Georgia Tech is currently ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report’s top public universities, and has research and educational initiatives in France, Ireland, Singapore, Shanghai and Costa Rica. More than 20,000 of its students are enrolled in its colleges of architecture, computing and engineering, among others.

Source: Mail Today, June 10, 2010