Tel Aviv University exploring possible collaborations in India

The university has identified ndustries like Mahindra and Mahindra and Reliance, for research and students placement programme

Tel Aviv University in Israel is exploring to have collaboration in education, agriculture and industrial sectors in India, where there was a lot of potential, a top university official has said.

Since starting looking at East from the traditional West for the last five to seven years, like India and China, the university has found tremendous potential for collaboration in these fields to have tie up between institutions, particularly student and faculty exchange programmes, Joseph Klater, President, Tel Aviv University, told reporters last night here.

"However, it will take some time to establish deep collaboration with India, as the University is trying to become global", Klafter said.

Stating that the university was looking to have more collaborations with Indian industries, particularly in the field of research, he said that it wanted to follow the Tata Industries model, which had invested nearly five million USD in seed funding in the varsity.

Though it has identified industries like Mahindra and Mahindra and Reliance, for research and students placement programme, as pointed out it would take some time for fructify, he said.

On having tie up in agriculture sector, particularly Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in the city, Klafter said that all possibilities were being explored to have a global outlook.

Stating that nearly 50 students from India are studying in the University, majority of them in Electrical Engineering, Klafter said that Israel was the safest and friendly place for students from any countries, as there was no no threat of racism there.

Earlier, addressing a session organised by CII, Klafter sad that both the countries were facing a common problem of brain drain and efforts were on to +brain gain+ by bringing back people from overseas institutes like Harvard and Oxford.