A lot more foreign exchange programmes for students in France and sharing of ideas, research and industry can be expected in the coming years, with day one of the India–France Science, Technology and Education summit seeing about 11 MoU’s being signed between companies, universities and research institutions in Delhi on Wednesday.
The event is a platform for people to network and explore business and other opportunities. Roundtables, management and online open courses are in the pipeline for the summit on Thursday. The Technology Summit will also mark the official launch of the India–France job opportunities board. It seeks to bring together the Human Resources heads of companies from both countries to promote opportunities for Indian students who have pursued higher education in France.
Both governments are also trying to promote greater student exchanges, twinning of higher education institutions, mutual recognition of degrees, research collaborations and training of teachers along with facilitation of visas. This was the strategy outlined by French President François Hollande on his State visit to India in February. There will be four key areas that the summit will focus on, namely “Cities, energy and climate”, “Biotechnology, Agri-food and Health”, “Aerospace and aeronautics” and “Chemicals and materials”.
The summit was inaugurated by Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences S. Jaipal Reddy. The summit is being organised by theFrench Embassy in India, the Department of Science and Technology and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
