Remarks by H.E. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Verma, Ambassador of India, JIEPP- 5 March, 2021 Remarks by H.E. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Verma, Ambassador of India, JIEPP- 5 March, 2021

Remarks by H.E. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Verma, Ambassador of India, JIEPP- 5 March, 2021

Dear Mr Hiroaki Aihara, Executive Director and Vice President, University of Tokyo

Mr Michi Yoshioka, Deputy Director, Higher Education, MEXT

Eminent Speakers & Panelists

And Participants from Indian and Japan

I extend my greetings & congratulations to MEXT, University of Tokyo, the JIEPP team and all other organizers of the Symposium for organising the3rd Symposium of Japan India Exchange Platform Program.

JIEPP, created underMEXT SponsoredInter-University Exchange Project (IUEP), in a short time has achieved remarkable goals.Post-COVID19 era is going to witness co-creation, co-innovation & co-production as new normal for business models & economic strategies all over the world. JIEPP and partner institutionswill play an important role in harnessing the potential in these emerging models.

The theme of3rdSymposium of Japan India Exchange Platform Program theme of the symposium is “Global Development of Industry-Academia Collaboration:The Importance of Japan-India Exchange”.

India and Japan, over thelast decade, havedeveloped a‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’, cross-cutting into all social, economic and political dimensions.India-Japan Academic exchanges contribute to further cementing the bilateral relations through exchange of talent, skill, information and researchand enhancingpeople-to-people linkages and industry-academia collaborations.

It is notable that India-JapanCooperation in the field of Education is an important and integral component of India - Japan bilateral relations. As per available data, as on December 2020, there are over 300 academic and research partnerships (including faculty / student exchanges) between more than 70 universities/institutes of Japan and around 105 universities/institutes of India. These partnerships range from liberal arts to management & business studies, legal studies, international studies, linguistics, ayurveda, STEM including fast emerging frontier technologies.

Today India has emerged as a global manufacturing hub and reliable partner in global supply chains.A confident and forward-looking nation is built by confident, skilled, innovative, entrepreneurial young people. Over 60 per cent of our fellow citizens are below the age of 35. India’s aspiration is to further reform, upgrade and enlarge our education system – and to make it relevant to 21st century realities of the digital economy, robotics, automation, genomics, etc. There is an increasing demand in Japan for high skilled workers, particularly for the ICT and Fintech sector, and India offers a matching talent pool.Both countries are already working on collaborating in this area through various agreements and initiatives.Industry – academia collaboration forms an integral part of this partnership.Thelaunch of “India-Japan Digital Partnership” and the establishment of India-Japan Startup Hub is anexample ofIndia’s skilled talent pool contributing to the industry directly

I wish all good health, success and happiness. I am confident that such student exchanges will contribute in further growth of India-Japan Relationship.

Arigatou Gozaimasu!!

Thank You.

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