US-based National Science Foundation to enhance collaboration with India

NEW DELHI: The US National Science Foundation (NSF) director Sethuraman Panchanathan met Dharmendra Pradhan, union minister of education in New Delhi today, to discuss mutual areas of interest and India’s plans for STEM studies under the National Education Policy 2020 with the intention to deepen and widen collaborations with India in the education and skilling sectors, said a statement from education minister.

Speaking at the event, Pradhan said that India’s young demographics and strong knowledge base is its strength. He said that the NSF should engage with lesser known unrepresented institutions like NITs, central universities and state universities in addition to the premier institutions in the country. Panchanathan assured that NSA would reach out for collaboration with unrepresented institutions to nurture the talent in these places.

Pradhan has asked the education ministry and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to prepare a framework for further engagement with the NSF. Pradhan further said that the skill sector should be bought under the ambit of such collaboration by reaching out to institutions like polytechnics, ITIs and community colleges. He said that the government has prioritised providing equal opportunity to quality education and skilling so as to equip the youth to face the twenty-first-century challenges.

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NSF is a US-based independent federal agency with the mission to promote scientific discovery, technological innovation and STEM education. It has a budget of USD 8.8 billion. Under the collaboration with NSF, India has six technology innovation hubs under which eight institutions like IITs, IISc Bangalore and others are collaborating on 30 projects and some projects on Cyber Security.