UK to send 100 academicians to India for HRD's GIAN initiative

Universities from UK will send nearly 100 academicians as part of HRD ministry's Global Initiative for Academic Networks (GIAN) programme in the next two years and the country will also invest 50 million pounds in promoting science partnerships in the next five years.
These announcements were made by visiting Secretary of state, Business Innovation and skill, UK Sajid Javid, who along with HRD minister Smriti Irani launched the '2016: UK-India year of Education, Research and Innovation' here.
Speaking at the event Irani said the UK government would help India expand its Global Initiative for Academic Networks (GIAN) programme and added that students from Navodaya Vidyalayas and other Indian schools will have an online engagement with students from UK schools.

British students, she said, had also expressed interest in experiencing the Indian way of life, which India could help in facilitating.
In his speech, Javid said there will be more than 25 events over the year as part of this campaign. He added that that UK will be the partner country for Technology Summit 2016.
He said UK-India Education Research Initiative has been extended by another five years. In the next five years we will be investing 50 million pounds in promoting science partnerships, Javid added.

He also announced that UK Universities would send around 100 academicians under HRD's GIAN initiative.

Among the other initiatives under the partnership are National UK alumni awards, Higher Education and Technology conference in Delhi and a UK-India Science Innovation Council.
In the India led activities, Ranking of Indian institutions will provide a mechanism for UK students to get an idea about these learning places, officials said.
Under the UK Generation India program, they would be looking forward to send 25,000 UK students to India, Javid said.
During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to United Kingdom last month, it was jointly announced by him and UK PM David Cameron that 2016 would be the UK-India Year of Education, Science and Research, a statement released here said.