The Australia India Business Council (AIBC) recently hosted FICCI Indian Higher Education Delegation to strengthen the bilateral partnership between Australia and India in the education and edutech sectors.
The FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) delegation was hosted in association with Open Learning, Education Centre of Australia (ECA) and New Edge Education Group.
Dr Lalitbhushan Waghmare, Vice Chancellor of Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research was part of the delegation. Speaking with The Australia Today he said that the delegation was visiting to explore opportunities for collaboration.
The Director and Head of Education and Skills, FICCI, Rajesh Pankaj, told The Australia Today that they had focussed discussions with top of the line Australian institutions including on research collaboration and partnerships, student and faculty mobility and edtech sector.
Sharing her thoughts with The Australia Today, Western Sydney University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), Professor Linda Taylor said that Australia India relationship was very strong and the bridge between the two countries’ human to human, institutional and country level relationships had reached a level where we are only going to go up and forward.
Dr Preeti Nair, Director, International Relations Cell, Parul University, Vadodara, India was also part of the delegation. She said that she was able to coordinate with many universities and also understood many programmes that can be offered to Indian students through different platforms because of this event.
While speaking with The Australia Today, AIBC National Associate Chair and NSW President Irfan Malik said he was looking forward to outcomes from this delegation.
Australia’s former Minister for Trade, Investment and Tourism, Andrew Robb AO, who was also part of the event said that the bilateral trade agreement (AI-ECTA – Australia India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement), which is probably the first of a G20 country that India has done, is borne out of trust.
He added that the ease of commitment in last few years to make it happen has fostered that sense of trust and now its giving rise to extraordinary levels of interaction between Australia and India.
