The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Anna varsity to sign pact with Canadian institutions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 27, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Anna varsity to sign pact with Canadian institutions

Special Correspondent

To facilitate technology transfer and academic cooperation To facilitate technology transfer and academic co-operation "Twenty Canadian universities will join hands to supply information about education to students"

Anna University Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan with W.G. McEwen, Trade Consul-Trade Commissioner, Canada, at the Canadian Education-Technology Transfer Mission in Chennai on Wednesday. — PHOTO: R.RAGU .

CHENNAI: Anna University will soon sign pacts with York University and the University of Toronto, Canada, for technology transfer and academic co-operation, Vice-Chancellor D.Viswanathan said on Wednesday.

The pact, to be signed in the next few weeks, is likely to help the affiliated colleges improve their technology development initiatives, he said at the inauguration of the Canadian Education-Technology Transfer Mission, organised here by International Education, Chennai, and RK Global Consultants, Canada.

The university had already inked pacts for similar ventures with institutions in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and Singapore.

As per an agreement among the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Department of Science and Technology, five Indian universities (including Anna University) and three corporate partners in the U.S., an exclusive satellite interaction network would be established, with Coimbatore as hub, to provide higher education in engineering through the distance education mode.

The university was also establishing a knowledge data centre, along with a technology incubator centre, to enable students to develop innovative products. It was also planning to establish a major IT park, he said. A Canadian Education Cell would be established here in August. Twenty Canadian universities would partner to supply information about education to students, said W.G. McEwen, Trade Consul-Trade Commissioner of Canada.

Citing the UNCTAD World Investment Report for 2004, M.G. Devasahayam, chief consultant, IIT-Madras Research Park, said India emerged as the sixth most important global destination for research and development, and was forecast to stand third during 2005-2009. "Though an exponential growth is forecast, there is a mismatch between innovative capabilities and what is happening on the ground, and this is where Canada, with a high innovation capability index, can partner India."

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