It was a privilege to co lead, along with Amit Gossain of KONE Elevators, the CII Industry-Academia Partnership Global Partnership Delegation to Australia. Across Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, one message that came through strongly was that Australia now sees India as a long term strategic partner in research and advanced technologies.
Over the past decade, India Australia university collaborations have moved well beyond student mobility. They are now increasingly centred around research, innovation, entrepreneurship and talent development.
We already have successful models to build upon. The IITB-Monash Research Academy, IIT Delhi - University of Queensland ( UQ-IITD UQIDAR) and the #BITS Pilani - RMIT University partnership demonstrate how sustained institutional collaborations can integrate student mobility, joint research and doctoral programmes into financially sustainable models.
Another takeaway was the potential of integrating India and Australia's strong innovation ecosystems, where universities in both the countries can leverage their industry networks, startups and government. As India strengthens its own research ecosystem, we should focus on partnerships that create knowledge, technologies, intellectual property and real societal impact.
My thanks to the Confederation of Indian Industry, our Australian hosts and all fellow delegates for the enriching discussions. The future of global partnerships will be defined not by the number of MoUs we sign, but by the impact we create.
Thanks to the delegation partners from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Indian Institute of Technology, Palakkad Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi Manipal Academy of Higher Education BML Munjal University ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, Hyderabad JIS UNIVERSITY Indian Institute of Science (IISc) KONE Wipro @kenverse @Q&Q solutions and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.
Thanks for the excellent management of the visit by Khushbu Singh and Priyanka Thakur from Confederation of Indian Industry.