In an effort to promote partnership in higher and technical education and research, India and France signed two MoUs for cooperation in these fields on Monday.
The first MoU is aimed at setting up an International Joint Laboratory between Institut De Recherche Pour Le Developpement and the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.
The two governments plan to set up a research and training partnership structure in the form of a Joint International Laboratory called: Cellule Franco-Indienne de Recherche en Sciences de l’Eau (CEFIRSE) or Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences (IFCWS). The laboratory will also have partnerships with other research structures and organisations in India, France and abroad, a government statement said.
Another MoU signed on Monday aims for academic collaboration between seven Indian Institutes of Technology and ParisTech — Paris Institute of Science and Technology.
An official statement stated that IIT Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee and institutions under ParisTech will collaborate in research and education. These institutes will partner in promotion of institutional exchanges, student exchanges, symposia, joint research and exchange of information pertaining to developments in teaching and student development.
French minister for higher education and research Valerie Pecresse also Union minister of human resource development Kapil Sibal. Both leaders appreciated the increasing co-operation between the two countries in the field of education and scientific research. Official sources stated that the two discussed the need to have more arrangements for co-operation in the field of education and research such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, weather prediction, aerospace engineering and advanced mathematics.