Cambridge plans Centre for Indian Business

Recognising the impressive growth graph drawn by India worldwide, the 800-year-old University of Cambridge is setting up the 'Cambridge Centre for Indian Business' at its Judge Business School, one of the leading business schools in Europe.

As a tribute to the Indian entreprenuership, the University has also announced the launch of the Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise.

The professorship to be assigned to the Judge Business School has been set up with a fund of 3.2 million pounds contributed by the government of India to celebrate the centenary of Pandit Nehru's arrival at Trinity College, Cambridge.

"The eight per cent growth rate of India's national income for three consecutive years is a true indication of its success story. The professorship would help forge closer links between India and other international economies and to promote understanding of India's business interests and its' place in the world economy," Professor Alison Richard, vice-chancellor, University of Cambridge, said announcing the professorship here.

An election board comprising experts on Indian business has been formed and will be electing the new professor. Not mentioning names, shortlisted University officials said that most of the names under consideration are from India.

The chosen professor will lead the creation of the Cambridge Centre for Indian Business which will be set up with 550,000 pounds contributed by global energy major, the BP group.

The centre, in the initial three years, would focus on contemporary research themes relating to today's business environment like technology innovation, emerging global economies, the relationship between economic development and knowledge economy and enterpreneurship.

"India and UK are on the path to a healthy bilateral economic and commercial relationship. Recent years have seen a surge of investments into UK from india particularly in the IT sector. India is now the second largest investor in the UK from Asia in terms of number of projects. In tune with the strong Indo-UK economic relationship, the centre will seve as a focal point for Indian and UK business policy makers to work together and have better understanding of India's business interests," Professor Arnoud De Meyer, director, Cambridge Judge Business School said.

Professor Richard is also leading a team of British academicians to explore opportunities of tieing up with various institutions like IITs, IIMs for student and faculty exchange apart from opportunities to collaborate with the private sector.

The team will be visiting New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai in next 10 days and interact with University alumni, higher educational institutions and players from public and private sectors.

The University of Cambridge has a tie-up with the Indian Business School, Hyderabad for facilitating research work and student exchange programmes etc.