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Columns::March 25, 2002
Han Park is named University Professor
Noted writer appointed first Hamilton Holmes Professor
Governor recognizes emeritus VP’s ‘humanitarian’ effort
Institutional Diversity office officially opens
Campus memorial proposal gets University Council approval
Moving forward: Education professor’s program builds excellence in young men
Campus Closeup
Grady College names King its new department head for PR, advertising
Kudos
Back to school
Something to talk about
Campus News
India Initiative leads to cooperative biotechnology research agreement
By Allyson Mann
tiny@uga.edu
In April 2000, Gary Bertsch traveled to India to explore the idea of establishing a UGA presence in India. Bertsch, director of
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| Krishna M. Ella (from left) and K.V. Devaraj watch K.M. Srinivasmurthy and UGA President Michael F. Adams sign the initiative agreement. (Photo by Paul Efland) |
the Center for International Trade and Security, returned with an “incredibly positive” assessment of the possibilities.
Nearly two years later, Vice President for Research Gordhan Patel made the same trip and came back with enthusiasm rivaling Bertsch’s. After thoroughly evaluating the commitment displayed and resources available, Patel concluded that UGA couldn’t afford to turn down the opportunity.
“We went to India with a generous dose of skepticism,” he says. “But we returned convinced that our contacts will provide opportunities and resources that will position UGA in India in a unique manner not paralleled by any other American university.”
These trips and nearly two years of effort culminated in the signing of a formal agreement earlier this month between UGA and a delegation from Bangalore, India. President Michael F. Adams signed an international cooperative agreement with K.M. Srinivasmurthy, director of Bio-Technology Park Limited, at a private ceremony March 12 at Patel’s home.
The agreement--which formalizes a collaboration to build a biotechnology park in India--is the latest development to come out of the India Initiative, a program that draws on the scientific and technical expertise of diverse educational and research units at UGA, and seeks to establish collaborative links with select counterparts in Indian institutions, in an effort to contribute meaningfully toward expanded Indo-U.S. scientific, technological and economic cooperation.
Anupam Srivastava, executive director of the program, traveled with Patel and Edward Kanemasu, coordinator of international agriculture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, to India in January. According to Srivastava, the agreement allows UGA and BTPL to begin exploring specific avenues of collaborative research and teaching in biotechnology.
“This umbrella agreement will permit a scalable degree of research and teaching collaboration with the potential of technology commercialization,” he says.
During their visit to Athens this month, Srinivasmurthy and several BTPL advisers presented plans for the biotechnology park to senior administrators and faculty. The facility--the first in India exclusively devoted to teaching and research on biotechnology--would be located on a 75-acre plot in the “Knowledge Park” complex in Bangalore, where most major U.S. and international information technology companies have offices. Bangalore is the second leading center for information technology in the world (Silicon Valley is first).
Long term, the biotechnology program will assist India in creating an institution that matches UGA’s level of academic quality while assisting UGA in meeting one of its strategic goals: internationalization. A presence in India will complement the many European study-abroad programs now in place, Patel says.
The agreement establishes “a wonderful public-private partnership,” according to Bertsch.
“Ten years from now, this could be viewed as one of the models for international teaching, research and service cooperation,” he says. “It will call attention to UGA’s leadership in biotechnology.”
The biotechnology venture is the second such agreement resulting from the India Initiative. Last year, Adams signed an international cooperative agreement with President Ramdas M. Pai of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. That agreement facilitates collaboration on teaching and research in science, technology and public policy and will help establish the Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy in India.
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