Australia has pledged to allocate funds for boosting the proceedings of the ongoing collaborative research projects with India. The recent friendly ties which have developed between the two nations are set to get a regenerative boost with this act of courtesy from the Australian counterparts.
Australia has said that it will pump in $9.20 million into those collaborative research projects which will be helpful in dealing with challenges in the health and energy sectors. The funds will be delivered to the Australia India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF). This fund will support the Australian partners to work on four new collaborative projects. “The AISRF Grand Challenge Fund will built and support existing research links and help in finding the solutions to some of the most critical current social challenges,” said Kim Carr, the Australian minister for higher education.
AISRF has reportedly spent almost 64 million AU dollars for supporting more than a 100 projects and workshops under the scheme. Since its inception, it has involved more than 80 reputed Australian and Indian research institutions and universities belonging to this arena.
The Indian government on its part is actively supporting the cause by encouraging its institutes and universities to participate in the collaborative projects and work for the development of the same. This initiative has urged the Indian students and researchers to work for the developmental projects in order to further enhance the social developments taking place as well as boosting the bilateral ties.
Interestingly, Pallam Raju the Indian minister of Human Resource Development and Kim Carr met recently at the annual Australia-India Ministerial Dialogue on Education Co-operation as well as the second Australia India Education Council (AIEC) meeting. Excerpts on the ministerial dialogue point out that Australia and India’s capabilities and objectives in education, research and training were highlighted in the meet.
Kim Carr also added, “Australia and India are by far the best placed nations in the Indo-Australia region on educational and social terms. The two nations are also best placed to make the most of the opportunities on the aforesaid grounds.”
The AIEC second meeting was jointly chaired by Kim Carr and Pallam Raju representing their respective nations. Interestingly AIEC was earlier formed with the aim of advancing the bilateral relationship between Australia and India on education. The main focus and aim of forming the body was to focus on areas of mutual student mobility, higher collaboration among institutes for education, research and training purpose and enhance the skill and quality standards of the students as well as the trainers and teachers.
Both the nations have been mutual beneficiaries of the bilateral ties which were initiated and progressed further after the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s first visit to India. Since then both the nations have progressed smoothly on terms of developmental procedures and projects besides assisting each other on collaborative ventures.
The nations expect to further strengthen the ties with more collaborative projects on the anvil waiting to be implemented. Friendly diplomatic ties between the two nations are expected to grow with the sustained cooperation among the counterparts with enhanced zeal and vigour.