India, Germany to put EUR 7 mn for research, innovation

BERLIN: India and Germany will put together seven million Euros for next four years towards joint research in the field of education under a pact to be signed tomorrow.

"We are signing two pacts. One is strengthening of the German language collaboration and second is both Germany and India have committed to 3.5 million Euros each towards working on joint research and innovation programmes," Minister for Human Resources Development Pallam Raju told reporters here.

Raju, who is accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on three-day bilateral visit to Germany, said the two countries knows each other's strength and have identified some areas for the joint research.

Under the strengthening of German language collaboration, he said currently 30,000 children in Kendriya Vidyalaya are learning German and under the pact they will try to increase the capacity.

He also said Germany has been on a "very sound technical footing" because of which there were many programmes assisted and handled by Germans in both IIT Chennai and IIT, Mandi.

According to official data, around 4,500 Indian students are pursuing various courses in Germany, while around 800 German students are studying or doing their internships in India.

Many Indian students are opting for Engineering and Management courses in German Universities on a self financed basis. Some German companies also offer scholarships for Indian students to undertake postgraduate courses in German universities.

The two governments would also take steps to strengthen people-to-people contacts, Raju added.