22 Indian-origin scientists to take up collaborative research with institutes in country
Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh made the announcement here in the presence of NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat, Principal Scientific Advisor A K Sood and Department of Science and Technology (DST) Secretary Abhay Karandikar.
The VAIBHAV or Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik fellows are from the topmost institutes of Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US, and will work with Indian institutes such as IISc, IUCAA and the IITs for the next three years on jointly identified projects.
The VAIBHAV fellowship programme was launched by DST last year.
The idea emerged from the VAIBHAV Summit inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2020 and envisages a collaboration between scientists of the Indian Diaspora with Indian higher educational institutions (HEIs), universities and public-funded scientific institutions.
A VAIBHAV fellow would identify an Indian institution for collaboration and may spend up to two months in a year for a maximum of three years.
Karandikar also announced the second call for VAIBHAV fellowships.
Mansi Manoj Kasliwal, professor at the Department of Astronomy of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Pasadena, will work at IIT-Bombay in the field of data sciences, and Murali Annavaram from the University of Southern California will work with scientists at the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Ajit Srivastava from the University of Geneva will work with IISER, Pune, in the field of electronics and semiconductor devices, while Prof.
