Govt allocates 418 Cr under ‘SPARC’ for joint research between Indian and foreign institutions

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 11: The Government of India has allocated Rs. 418 Crores to implement the Scheme for Promotion of Academic & Research Collaboration (SPARC), under which Indian institutions will collaborate with their foreign counterparts in the area of research.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) will allocate the money to the higher education institutions, which will be spent during the period of 2018-2020.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT KGP) has been made the Coordinating Institution (CI) for this scheme. Minister of HRD Prakash Javadekar making the announcement over twitter wrote, “SPARC- will focus on joint research projects in focus areas, including technology, science & also social sciences, which are of relevance to India. This will immensely benefit students, faculty and improve the perception of Indian Institutes across the world.”

SPARC will commence from October 1, 2018, by working in the area of joint research projects between Indian institutions with best of global universities.