Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham recently conducted the Amrita – Africa Collaboration Meet 2022 for strengthening the Indo – African relations in the areas of academics, research, and healthcare. In attendance was Shri. V. Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India, along with dignitaries & ambassadors from 18 African countries.

The event focused on showcasing Amrita’s proposition along with potential collaborations with distinguished delegates from Africa for exploring opportunities in the areas of education, research, and healthcare with special emphasis on admissions and scholarships offered for undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs. Along with these, PhD level collaborations in specific thematic areas with respect to sustainable development, social sciences, engineering, management, etc. were showcased. The event also highlighted the 100 fully funded E4Life PhD seats for highly promising students as well as tailored PhD Programs for Government Officials are planned to be offered at the university.

V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India expressed, “I am deeply delighted to be a part of this initiative. Congratulations to Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and its chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Amma for organizing the Amrita – Africa Collaboration Meet. I am happy to see such large participation from the diplomatic community. India takes pride in its higher education institutions with many countries wanting to open IITs in their home country. While many Vice-Presidents of African countries have studied in India, in our capacity, thousands of doctors, and teachers have been trained in India.” Emphasizing the vision of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, with regards to strengthening the ties with African countries, Shri. V. Muraleedharan said, “It is my privilege to announce that the long-standing relationship with African countries will be strengthened through education as I have been told Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham will be providing 100% tuition waiver Chancellor’s scholarship for 350 students from Africa enrolled in undergraduate/graduate-level courses. I would like to request the excellences to utilize the offer that has been made.”

Swami Sri Amritaswaroopananda Puri, President, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, spoke about Amrita’s University’s vision under the guidance of the Chancellor and provided an overview on the humanitarian activities of Amma, collectively known as “Embracing the World”. Swamiji spoke about Amma’s vision of providing quality education to all which is based on the foundation of “Education for Life and Education for Living”. Swamiji emphasized how education should also impart to students a deep-rooted commitment to work towards the betterment of society. He expressed his happiness over the various avenues for collaboration that Amrita has opened for students from Africa and the community at large.

Dr P Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, while giving an overview of the University, highlighted the dynamic programs that focus on purpose-driven education. He placed great emphasis on how the university is continuously striving to contribute to societal benefit by working with excellent faculty. Speaking about the Cyber security centre of Amrita University that specializes in Protecting critical information and infrastructure, the Big Data Early Warning Framework that has been adopted by the Government of India, Dr. Rangan said, “Seeing how the future will be dominated by Wireless system, the overarching tree, if I were to capture in one phrase, would be Nano- Bio Info for human health and wisdom as well as safety and sustainability of the environment and it captures most of what we do at Amrita.”

Dr Maneesha V Ramesh, Provost and UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development, provided an overview of the various initiatives undertaken at the university in the areas of research, innovation, and internationalization. She also touched upon the journey, recognitions, and achievements that Amrita has garnered over the years. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Maneesha said “Amrita has made outstanding achievements in the areas of research by coming up with solutions which are first of its kind in the world, Asia and India. The various sustainable development initiatives that are undertaken at Amrita and the flagship Live-in-Labs® program strives to accelerate our journey towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.” Dr. Maneesha also touched upon how these unique initiatives could be scaled globally for the benefit of the African countries as well. She also highlighted the various avenues for collaboration, capacity-building initiatives, and tailored academic and research programs that Amrita is offering to each African country based on the specific requirements in order to achieve outstanding outcomes.

Dr. Prem Nair, Provost and Medical Director at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences shed light upon the various healthcare initiatives at Amrita Hospitals. He said, “Amrita has pioneered innovations such as creating the first 3D-printing lab in a hospital setting, patient-specific design of implantable devices and surgical tools to help optimize surgical processes and cost and enhanced pre-operative planning leading to shorter operation times and reducing risk. Along with this, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Amrita Hospitals play a significant role in bridging the gap in healthcare accessibility, availability affordability, and quality while providing community engagement, education, and research. We look forward to this collaboration that will bring out the best for all the students collectively.” He also spoke about the upcoming Amrita Hospitals in Faridabad, which would be the largest hospital in Asia with a sprawling campus with a 2000-bed facility.

Representing Africa, in attendance were dignitaries namely Margaret L. Kyogire, Deputy High Commissioner, Uganda High Commission, Balunywa Baker N., Education Attache, Uganda High Commission, Godfrey Majoni Chipare, Ambassador, Republic of Zimbabwe, Leonardo Mola Laplata Mum, Counsellor, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Ahmed Sule, Ambassador, Nigeria High Commission, Isse Abdillahi Assoweh, Ambassador, Republic of Djibouti, Christopher E Okeke, Minister, Nigeria High Commission, Jean Baptiste Gagre, Second Counselor, Burkina Faso, Errachid Alaoui Mrani, Minister Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission, Kingdom of Morocco, Theodore Dah, Minister Counsellor, Cote D’ivoire, Mehdi Boukourizia, First Secretary, Kingdom of Morocco, Kondi Mani, Charge d’ Affaires a. i., Togolese Republic, Stella Budiriganya, Ambassador, Republic of Burundi, Moustapha Aboubacar Diori, First Secretary, Republic of Niger, Anisa Kapufi Mbega, High Commissioner, The United Republic of Tanzania, Mustapha Jawara, High Commissioner, The Republic of The Gambia, Abdalla Omer Bashir Elhusain, Ambassador, Sudan along with Dr. P. V. Jayaraj, Managing Director, Tanzania.

Internationalization is one of the key areas of focus for Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. With a global vision to provide education for life and living for one and all, under the visionary leadership of our Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Amma, the University has been enabling education for children in various parts of the world. This includes numerous scholarships to underprivileged countries such as SAARC, ASEAN, and Africa. The event organized with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs hopes to pave the way to engage the country leaders in various dialogues to expand our research, academic, and healthcare facilities to people in Africa. Along with the prospective engagements in the area of education, healthcare, and sustainable development, the event also showcased the network of humanitarian activities, “Embracing the World”, that provide solace to thousands across the globe under the guidance of Amrita’s Chancellor.