by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Laurie Pearcey
New Delhi : In a major step to take forward its widening outreach to India, including in student recruitment and collaborations in cutting-edge research, the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, on Tuesday evening inaugurated its new premises in the Indian capital as Australia announced its intent about making India a major focus of its economic and diplomatic strategy with education as a “flagship sector”.
Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu graced the inauguration of the centre, located in the Jasola commercial complex in New Delhi, while UNSW Pro-Vice Chancellor (International) Laurie Pearcey flew down especially to attend the event.
Addressing the select gathering at the event, High Commissioner Sidhu, who is of Indian origin in an increasingly multiracial Australia, termed the opening of the new office “a big milestone” in the bilateral relationship with India.
Referring to the report, ‘An India Economic Strategy to 2035, Navigating from Potential to Delivery’ released last week by the Australian government, Sidhu said it outlined that education is “not just a priority sector but the top priority sector” in bilateral relations with India.
“Education is a benchmark of co-operation between our two countries. There’s a lot that we have been doing together and can now do much much more in the field of education and research,” she added.
Pearcey, in his remarks, said from nine overseas students from Southeast Asia in the early 1950s, UNSW today has 20,000 international students from 120 countries, “and India is an important part of UNSW”.
He termed the opening of the new office an “incredibly exciting time in the Australia-India relationship”. He stressed on UNSW’s strategy, which is academic excellence, social engagement and global impact.
Manish (one name), Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, termed the opening of the centre as “very timely” and said that education is one of the primary areas of bilateral cooperation.
“We have collaborations for cutting edge research and technology with institutions of higher education. We want to step these up to the next level in the coming years,” said Louise McSorley, Counsellor-Education and Research at the Australian High Commission.
Ambassador Amit Dasgupta, a former Indian consul-general in Melbourne and country director of UNSW, said the India engagement of UNSW started modestly and has “gone from strength to strength, and I believe the best is yet to come”.
He said it was not just a matter of student recruitment, but went beyond that. “A partnership that forged together the twin pillars of teaching and research, how we can collaborate with institutions of academic excellence in India and with the corporate sector and in the process transform lives, that is the mission we have.”
The event was attended by senior academics like Rupamanjari Ghosh, Vice Chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, Vivekanand Jha, Head of The George Institute, Sanjeev Prasad, Professor of Computer Science, IIT Delhi and Sanjay Seth, CEO of TERI-Griha among others.
The report, ‘An India Economic Strategy to 2035, Navigating from Potential to Delivery’, authored by former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and one-time High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese, looks at how Australia can capitalise on economic growth in India and states that a strong and productive Australia-India education relationship should be seen as the “flagship sector” of the bilateral relationship.
“There is no sector with greater promise for Australia in India than education. Australia’s future growth and prosperity will be driven by our ability to generate and attract the best and brightest.”
According to it, India’s tertiary-age (18 to 22) population is the largest in the world and is projected to peak at 126 million in 2026 before stabilising at 118 million by 2035, yet enrolment in higher education (27 per cent) is far behind China (43 per cent) and Brazil (51 per cent).
The report estimates that if Australia maintains its growth in international students and can recapture its share of Indian students from its 2009-10 peak, direct revenue from Australian education exports to India could exceed $12 billion by 2035.
Located in Sydney, Australia’s student city, UNSW is one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities and is home to more than 52,000 students from nearly 120 countries. UNSW is ranked 45th in the world, according to QS World University ranking.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Social Entrepreneur, Technology, Women Entrepreneur
Professor Veena Sahajwalla (right)
Sydney : In a pioneering effort to tackle the growing mountains of e-waste, an IIT-trained Australian scientist of Indian origin at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) here has helped launch the world’s first microfactory that can transform electronic waste (e-waste) like smartphones and laptops into valuable material for re-use.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist at UNSW and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the varsity, said the e-waste microfactory is the first of a series under development and in testing at UNSW which is now actively wooing Indian students to its Sydney campus.
These microfactories can also turn many types of consumer waste such as glass, plastic and timber into commercial materials and products.
Using technology developed after extensive scientific research at the SMaRT Centre, the e-waste microfactory has the potential to reduce the rapidly growing problem of vast amounts of electronic waste that cause environmental harm and go into landfills.
The microfactories can use e-waste like computer circuit boards to make metal alloys such as copper and tin, while glass and plastic from e-devices can be converted into micromaterials used in industrial-grade ceramics and plastic filaments for 3D printing.
“Our e-waste (microfactory) and another under development for other consumer waste types offer a cost-effective solution to one of the greatest environmental challenges of our age, while delivering new job opportunities to our cities but importantly to our rural and regional areas, too,” said the Mumbai-born Sahajwalla, who did her B.Tech in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1986.
“Using our green manufacturing technologies, these microfactories can transform waste where it is stockpiled and created, enabling local businesses and communities to not only tackle local waste problems but develop a commercial opportunity from the valuable materials that are created,” she said.
According to Sahajwalla, microfactories present a solution to burning and burying of waste items that contain materials that can be transformed into value-added substances and products to meet existing and new industry and consumer demands. She termed microfactories a “truly sustainable solution to our growing waste problem while offering economic benefits available to local communities”.
“We have proven you can transform just about anything at the micro-level and transform waste streams into value-added products. For example, instead of looking at plastics as just a nuisance, we’ve shown scientifically that you can generate materials from that waste stream to create smart filaments for 3D printing,” she said.
“These microfactories can transform the manufacturing landscape, especially in remote locations where typically the logistics of having waste transported or processed are prohibitively expensive. This is especially beneficial for the island markets and the remote and regional regions of the country.”
UNSW has developed the technology with support from the Australian Research Council and is now in partnership with a number of businesses and organisations, including e-waste recycler TES, mining manufacturer Moly-Cop, and Dresden which makes spectacles.
UNSW is one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities and is home to more than 52,000 students from nearly 130 countries. UNSW is ranked 45th in the world, according to QS World University ranking.
Sahajwalla has received numerous awards, including Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for her outstanding contributions in the field of materials processing for sustainable development (2015), and also the Eureka Prize (2005), Pravasi Bhartiya Samman for outstanding achievement in science (2011).
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events
New Delhi : The 10th edition of The GRIHA Summit that will discuss sustainable building policies, tools and techniques and exhibitions showcasing sustainable building materials, construction practices and technologies will be organised in New Delhi in December by TERI in cooperation with the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, one of the world’s leading varsities.
GRIHA Summit seeks to discuss the environmental performance of a building holistically over its entire lifecycle based on quantitative and qualitative criteria. It seeks to minimise resource consumption, waste generation and overall ecological and environmental impact of buildings and habitats.
Ian Jacobs, President and Vice Chancellor, UNSW said: “Our partnership with TERI represents our commitment to jointly develop tangible applications of research that our teams work in several areas such as clean energy and sustainable housing, including photo-voltaics, waste-water treatment and intelligent transport systems.
“This demonstrates UNSW’s commitment to a robust ‘India Strategy’ that aligns with the developmental aspirations of the Indian government. We look forward to exploring several areas of collaboration with TERI.”
Sydney-based UNSW is one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities and is home to more than 52,000 students from over 130 countries. It offers programmes in architecture, art and design, business, engineering and law, medicine and science backed by a rich international faculty.
The partnership highlights the growing collaboration between India and Australia across various sectors.
Ajay Mathur, President, GRIHA Council and Director General, TERI said: “I welcome the offer of UNSW to co-create the 10th GRIHA Summit together with the GRIHA Council. I am equally excited on the renewed partnership between TERI and UNSW in the collaborative efforts of knowledge transfer and identification of specific areas for research and development across various thematics concerning the Built Environment.”
Over the years, the GRIHA Summit has witnessed enthusiastic participation from government, industry, building practitioners, developers, academia and all other relevant stakeholders.
—IANS
