Celebrating the Cambridge India partnership

The Vice-Chancellor and colleagues returned to the four Indian cities of Kolkata, New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

The visit continued the conversations begun in 2008 to enhance the deepening and widening partnership between Cambridge and a diverse array of institutions in India.

The programme included lectures, talks, private meetings, alumni events and a major announcement of financial support for Indian students to study at the University.

Two major themes of the interactions were industry-academic partnerships and the challenges of creating sustainable environments.

• The Prime Minster of India, The Honorable Dr Manmohan Singh, hosted a private lunch for the Vice-Chancellor at his residence in New Delhi.

• The Manmohan Singh Undergraduate Scholarship programme was launched at a press conference in New Delhi. The scholarships will provide full funding, covering fees and means-tested maintenance, for undergraduate study at the University of Cambridge. As the programme develops there are expected to be up to ten Manmohan Singh Undergraduate Scholars studying at the University at any one time. More than £1.5 million has already been committed. The scholarships have been funded by endowment gifts from Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, through the Eranda Foundation, and from the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, through the Bharti Foundation, with substantial underpinning from Cambridge Assessment. to support the scholarships over the long term.

• The Vice-Chancellor delivered a lecture, ‘Cambridge and the Environment’, to a distinguished invited audience at the British Council in New Delhi. The lecture was chaired by the High Commissioner Sir Richard Stagg and sponsored by Cambridge University Press which this year celebrates its 425th Anniversary, making it the oldest continuously publishing University press in the world.

• The Vice-Chancellor attended and delivered speeches at alumni events in each of the four cities.

• The Cambridge delegation visited Mallya Aditi International School in Bangalore. The school, an accredited Cambridge Fellowship Centre, has offered the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) qualifications since it opened in 1984.

• The Vice-Chancellor’s delegation visited Infosys in Bangalore, where she was received by company founders Mr Naryana Murthy and Mr Nandan Nilekani. She held substantive discussions with senior researchers and took part in a televised panel discussion on how today's challenges can be met by universities working in partnership with other educational & research institutions, and with industry & NGOs, and the increasing importance of international collaborations. Professor Richard and Mr Murthy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for future collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Infosys in the fields of engineering, architecture, bio-pharma and management and business.

• The Cambridge delegation attended a private dinner with senior leadership from the Tata Group in Mumbai and expressed deep sympathy with the people of Mumbai following the events in late November.

• At a meeting with the new Director of the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-B), Professor Devang Khakhar, progress was discussed on the MoU signed last April in the field of Materials Science and Nanotechnology. 

• Professor Richard delivered the first C.D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture in the Convocation Hall of the University of Mumbai, entitled ‘Beyond Boundaries: Universities and Partnership’, in the presence of the Sherriff of Mumbai and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mumbai.  

• At a symposium in Mumbai, organised jointly with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and opened by Mr Jamshyd Godrej and closed by the Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge colleagues and Indian counterparts spoke on ‘University – Industry Relations: Creating alliances for Innovation’. 

Media coverage in national and regional press was prominent during the visit.