Indian Railways' Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya and Airbus on Thursday inked a pact to collaborate in the fields of research, teaching, and training of students to deepen understanding of scientific, technological, and management topics pertaining to the aerospace sector.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Rémi Maillard, President and Managing Director, Airbus India and South Asia, and Manoj Choudhary, Vice-Chancellor, Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), in the presence of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Railway Board Chairperson and CEO Jaya Varma Sinha.
"GSV will focus on intense industry-academia partnerships. All its courses will be designed in collaboration with industry. The students who study at GSV will be industry-ready. They will be highly sought after for employment in the transportation and logistics sectors," Vaishnaw said.
The Airbus-GSV MoU will lead to the starting of the 'aerospace major' B-Tech course at the Gati Shakti Vishvavidyalaya which will train students for the aviation sector. Vaishnaw said similar agreements were also being discussed with industry majors such as Siemens, Alstom, Deutsche Bahn for starting sector specific courses at GSV. The aviation sector is expected to require at least 15,000 engineers as it expands in the country over the next few years, Vaishnaw said.
Maillard said Airbus recognised India as a key driver of global aviation as well as an indispensable talent and resource hub and was committed to maturing all the necessary building blocks to develop a fully integrated aerospace ecosystem in the country.
"The partnership with Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya will develop a strong pipeline of skilled workforce in the country that will be future ready to serve its fast-growing aerospace sector," he said. Focusing exclusively on transport and logistics sectors, GSV is a “first of its kind” university aiming to fulfil the mandate of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan 2021 and National Logistics Policy 2022 spanning railways, shipping, ports, highways , roads, waterways, and aviation sectors.
Following a demand-driven curriculum and leveraging infrastructure of all the centralised training institutes of Indian Railways, the GSV aims at creating a resource pool of professionals across technology, economics, management and policy comprising multidisciplinary teaching, executive training and research.