KNOWLEDGE FIRST, A BOOK RELEASED AT IIT MADRAS

David Willetts, British Minister for Universities and Science released a book, ‘Knowledge First`, at New Research Park of the IIT-Madras’ in the IIT Madras campus on Wednesday. The book was received byM.S. Ananth, Director of IIT in the presence of M. Sandhya Shekar, CEO of IIT Madras Research Park, 

In his speech, David Willetts said that The United Kingdom was committed to supporting India as it develops fourteen world-class Innovation Universities. He further said that eight U.K. universities – Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Essex, Birmingham, Newcastle, Exeter and the Open University – were keen to collaborate at the design and eventual creation level of the new Innovation Universities.

Kabil Sibal responding to the Ministers speech said that India was keen to work alongside the Universities from UK in encouraging flow of postgraduate and research students and academics between the two countries. 

Mr. Willetts also said that he would encourage the British academics to come to India. as there is scope for PG and Ph.D students to study in both countries to obtain a single award. Twinning arrangements between universities sharing staff and resources is beneficial,” he said, outlining the broad contour for collaboration.

The UK already has more than 80 university-related collaborations up and running in India, making it the most active international partner here. To move things on substantially, Mr. Willetts said he would be visiting India again in November with leading UK university vice-chancellors to establish a framework for collaboration as India and the UK have a solid base to build on.

Recent commitments on co-funded research projects are worth about £60 million. Indeed, funding pledged by the UK bodies for collaboration with India this year has already approached 1 per cent of its science budget, a level that some argue should be the budget set aside for international collaboration, Mr. Willetts said. Jointly funded and administered research programmes will concentrate on priority areas for both countries – food security, water resources and sustainable energy. The UK has offered to commit up to £6 million for research in areas such as off-grid power generation technologies and ICT to improve services in, and the economic capacity of, rural communities in both countries. In the area of civil nuclear energy, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and India`s Department of Atomic Energy are collaborating on five new projects, including areas such as plant safety and nuclear waste management, the British Minister said.