New Delhi: The government on Tuesday announced the VAIBHAV fellowship to 22 scientists of Indian origin to take up collaborative research projects in leading institutes of the country in areas such as artificial intelligence to quantum technologies.
The Ministry of Science and Technology also made an offer to top scientists Arogyaswami J Paulraj and Prof. Jitendra Malik to take up collaborative research projects in the fields of electrical engineering and computer science at IIT-Bombay and IIT-Kanpur, respectively, as ‘Distinguished VAIBHAV Fellows’.
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 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.
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. Subir Sarkar from the University of Oxford will work with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in the field of data sciences.
Prof. Kazi Rajibul from the University of Waterloo, Canada, will work at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in the field of quantum technologies, while Dinesh Bharadia from the University of California, San Diego, will work in the field of communication technologies at IIT-Madras.
Sudhir Dixit from the Basic Internet Evangelist University of Oslo will work with the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in the field of communication technologies, while Prof. Satish Narayanasamy from the University of Michigan will work at IISc in the field of electronics and semiconductor devices.
Avik Dutt from the University of Maryland, Prof. S Kumar from the James Watt School of Engineering University of Glasgow, Rakesh Kumar Joshi from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Manoj Gupta from the University of Singapore, Prof. Bharat Jalan from the University of Minnesota, Apoorva Bhatt from the University of Birmingham, Prof. Perumal Nithiarasu from Swansea University, Prof. Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay from Macquarie University, Sydney, Apurba Dev from Uppsala University, Sweden, Sandeep Soni, executive director at Crispr Therapeutics, Boston, have also been selected as VAIBHAV fellows.
Swadhin Kumar Behera from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Rakesh Kumar from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, and Prof. Sunil Mithas from the University of South Florida will also be VAIBHAV fellows.
“We believe that the Indian diaspora working in other countries would be able to expand the horizons of Indian researchers with their knowledge and experiences. They can help and guide our Indian researchers with their unique thought process,” Department of Science and Technology Secretary Karandikar said.
He said that the Indian diaspora may connect with Indian faculty, researchers and students as well, to give them a new perspective towards research, development and innovation.
