Developing strong partnerships with Indian institutions of higher education, Indian companies, and multinationals with a presence in India is a cornerstone of the Purdue-India relationship. Sustainable partnerships provide opportunities for student and faculty mobility, joint research, and internship opportunities. Following is a short summary of milestones and events.
On June 21, 2023, Purdue students and representatives attended events in Washington, DC for the State Visit of Prime Minister Modi, where the Association of American Universities (AAU) India Higher Education Task Force, issued its initial report of recommendations to strengthen relationships between U.S. and Indian higher education institutions. Purdue-India Partnership Director Heidi Arola represents Purdue on the taskforce.
In April 2023, Professor Mark Lundstrom headlined the ninth annual India-Purdue Collaborative Lecture Series, with his talk “A New Era of Semiconductor Electronics.”
On May 9, 2023, Purdue signed an MOU with the Indian Semiconductor Mission for cooperation in capacity building, R&D, and industry participation.
On November 3, 2022, Purdue’s President, Dr. Mung Chiang, signed a letter of intent to create semiconductor dual-degree programs at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
In Fall 2022, for the first time in more than a decade, Indian students became the #1 international student population at Purdue. This trend continued in Fall 2023.
Purdue recently launched the fifth call for the Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellowship, a partnership between Purdue and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of India. Each year, SERB sponsors 25, 12-month research visits to Purdue by visiting doctoral students who are pursuing their degrees at Indian Institutions. The program aims to provide meaningful international research experiences for top PhD students enrolled in Indian institutions while fostering collaborations between research groups in order to strengthen institutional partnerships between Purdue and Indian higher education institutions. This cohort will begin their research at Purdue in Fall 2024.
In January 2019, Purdue alum Astronaut Jerry Ross traveled to Mumbai, India as the distinguished speaker for the India-Purdue Collaborative Lecture Series and the Purdue International Ideas Festival, in celebration of Purdue University’s 150th anniversary.
On January 24, 2017, Purdue’s Executive Vice President and the Secretary of India’s Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) signed an MOU in support of international academic cooperation. SERIIUS—the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States—was another Purdue partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)—Bangalore, India, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colorado, USA.
In July, 2015, Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s Labs signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Purdue to strengthen pharmaceutical research and development.
In November 2014, Purdue President Mitch Daniels signed a partnership agreement with officials from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) in Chennai that enabled joint supervision of doctoral candidates between Purdue and IITM.
In May 2015, President Daniels signed an MOU with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), which provided a vehicle for Purdue and IITH to expand collaborative educational and research opportunities for faculty and students at the two universities.
These are just a few of the numerous Purdue-India partnerships in which faculty, staff, and students are involved.