IIT-Bombay signs MoU with Canadian varsity

According to the three-year agreement finalised at the weekend by IIT-Bombay professor Pradipta Banerji, students and faculty members from the two institutions will travel to India and Canada for research in the two fields.

Prof. Banerji said: 'We saw a lot of value in the University of Alberta, including its National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT). What we are hoping to do is make this agreement go on for 30 years on its own steam.'

He said IIT-Bombay has 'one of the world's best nano-fabrication facilities in the world. We have the ability to fabricate nine-inch wafers, which does not exist in any other educational facility in the world.

The Indian professor said, the collaboration in health research would extend from nano-biosensors, used for sensing infectious diseases, to drug delivery systems and non-infectious diseases.

"India has one of the largest populations, which is going to be affected by both Type 1 and 2 diabetes. So just to be able to sense this before it becomes a health problem is an issue of vital importance," Banerji said.

Ranked 36th by Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings among engineering and IT universities, IIT-Bombay accounts for 20 percent of India's PhD graduates.

Indira Samarasekera, president of the University of Alberta, said partnering with IIT-Bombay was part the university's mission to forge connections globally.

The University of Alberta is ranked 74th worldwide.