New Task Force To Study Expansion Of US India University Partnership

NEW YORK, NY (IANS) – Top Indian American academics have been named as co-chairs of the Association of American Universities (AAU) task force focused on the expansion of research and academic partnerships among higher education institutions in the US and India.

The four of the five to co-chair the initiative are University of California San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, Pennsylvania State University President Neeli Bendapudi, University at Buffalo President Satish K. Tripathi, and incoming President of Tufts University Sunil Kumar. University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones is the fifth co-chair.

AAU created the national task force in coordination with the Biden administration’s US-India initiative on critical and emerging technology, which seeks to grow technological and industrial collaboration between the two nations.

The task force will meet monthly to determine focus areas for bilateral research and education cooperation, to identify existing programs that could provide blueprints for future partnerships, and to formulate strategies on how best to move forward.

All four co-chairs released statements expressing their hopes for the future.

“I am honored to be selected to co-chair this talented and dedicated team — tasked by the White House — to strengthen interdisciplinary partnerships between American and Indian universities to advance innovations in areas such as semiconductor technology, nuclear energy, unmanned vehicles, space exploration, AI and digital infrastructure,” Bendapudi said.

“As the two largest democracies, a strong -India partnership in research and academia is essential for both countries – and the world. UC San Diego’s recently launched 21st Century India Center, an interdisciplinary, world-class think tank and hub for scholarly research, education, and public engagement, focuses on facilitating dialogue, advancing collaboration between our great nations, and supporting sustainable growth that can help provide important insights to the work of this task force,” Khosla said.

Kumar said, “This effort to identify ways to bring the scientific communities in the two countries closer is timely and will prove very consequential to both countries.”

Tripathi said, “I look forward to helping cultivate these productive partnerships with our Indian higher education counterparts, and to building on the work we are doing at the University at Buffalo and across the AAU.”

In addition to the co-chairs, nine other Indian American academics are in the 15 member task force: Venkataramanan Balakrishnan, Case Western Reserve University; Ravi V. Bellamkonda, Emory University; Venu Govindaraju, University at Buffalo; Amita Gupta, Johns Hopkins University; Rajesh K. Gupta, University of California San Diego; Pradeep Khanna, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Pramod Khargonekar, University of California, Irvine; Padma Raghavan, Vanderbilt University; and Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Rice University.