BENGALURU: The Karnataka government and the British Council signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen bilateral cooperation in higher education in the presence of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in Bengaluru on Thursday.
The Chief Minister who spoke on the occasion said that the two governments are signing a first-of-its-kind three-year MoU involving collaboration on leadership development in higher education institutions. India and UKs relationship spans several sectors of cooperation including trade and commerce, education, science & technology, defence and culture. Government of Karnataka’s Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) initiative for innovation partnerships with countries across the globe has contributed to Karnataka’s global image as the leading tech hub. The UK has been a very important GIA partner for Karnataka and 38% of UK investment into India in 2017-18 came into Karnataka, he noted.
The CM welcomed the establishment of the Tech Hubs and Tech Clusters programmes as well as Go Global programmes that take innovative start-ups from India to the UK. He also said that GoK’s Urban Development department has collaborated with the UK through the Climate Resilient Cities for Shared Prosperity Urban Development programme.
This will deliver a transformational project on design and delivery of Multimodal Transport Hubs in Bengaluru, an Integrated Transport Authority and Transport Observatory In partnership with UK Catapults. The project demonstrates innovative ways to combat air pollution. The CM said that this is a platform to highlight Karnataka’s leadership role and to mutually chart a way forward in the sector.
Barbara Wickham OBE, Director India, British Council, said, “The MoU is a further step in realising the mutual vision of a deep, strong India-UK education relationship while supporting the knowledge ambitions laid out in India›s National Education Policy 2020. Through this MoU, we look forward to creating more education and employment opportunities for aspiring students of Karnataka as well as supporting the states vision for stronger higher education systems.”
Dr C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister, said, “India is poised for big change in education. NEP is serving as a transformation opportunity. Karnataka state is in the forefront of implementation of NEP. Collaboration with UK HEIs through British Council is happening at an opportune time. Planned initiatives through this collaboration will immensely benefit the stakeholders of higher education.”