Diplomatic relations and bilateral collaborative ties between India and the United States are nothing new to talk about. Over the past few years, the bilateral ties between the two nations have witnessed a surge courtesy the growing number of partnership programmes and the inherent mutual understanding. Both sides have benefitted as a result on diverse fields with irrefutably positive results at their disposal. Recently, the relation between the nations got a new boost owing to the release of the 2nd round of Obama-Singh grant for higher education.
Continuing with the friendly collaborative educational ties which were flagged off between the two nations a few years back, the two nations set another milestone in their lauded relationship ties with a new venture. The second round of Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative Awards has been rolled out for a fresh lease of life into the venture.
Eight universities from both India and the United States each have been selected for collaborative partnership projects where partnering pairs of colleges are set to benefit mutually from the aforesaid scheme.
It is expected that this scheme will help to develop and strengthen the relationship between partnering institutions of both the nations in the priority sectors of higher education and research. The beneficiaries are set to benefit themselves as well the helping causes and projects for educational and research work.
Each project will be granted a sum of $250,000 which can be used over a period of three years based on requirements. The governments have expressed that with this initiative they want to cultivate and enrich educational reforms, foster economic growth, implement and nurture shared knowledge and technologies for meeting global challenges and develop world class junior faculty in the institutes of higher learning both in India and the United States.
As a matter of fact, the Obama-Singh educational initiative was announced in the year 2009 when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US president Barrack Obama met in order to develop educational ties between India and the United States as a part of developing strategic ties and bilateral relations. Financial aids pledged by both the governments for this initiative was to the tune of $5 million each totalling to a grant of $10 million.
The US led partnership programmes include Harvard-India Nutrition initiative between Harvard school of public health and St John’s Research Institute Bangalore, Stem Faculty Project between Ohio State University and Aligarh Muslim University, Inclusive Universities Project between University of Massachusetts and University of Pune and Partnering for Success Project between University of North Carolina and IIM Bangalore.
The Indian led partnership programmes include Tamil Nadu Energy Futures Project between Annamalai University and Tennessee Technological University, Engineering ADP Project between Assam Agricultural University and Washington State University, Sustainable Response to Intervention Project between Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women and University of Minnesota and Cognitive Based Curriculum Development Tool between NIT Trichy and University of Nevada.
On a further note, it has been announced that the subsequent request for proposals for the further progress of the Obama-Singh initiative will be announced later this month.
Tags:
