On 19th December 2018, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Navy for collaboration in aerospace, anti-submarine warfare, cybersecurity, management, and medical research. This agreement paves the way for combined research and development in all possible areas of mutual interest and strength, including M. Tech. and Ph. D. programs for Naval officers.
“This is the first time the Indian Navy has signed a MoU with a private university,” said C. Parameswaran, Director, Corporate and Industry Relations of the university. Vice-Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, who presided over the MoU signing ceremony on behalf of the Navy, observed that the MoU will help speed up the process of indigenization, in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ program.
“It is a win-win situation for the Navy, the MSMEs (Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises) and the university, as a large number of employment opportunities will be created,” said the Vice-Admiral citing the example of Germany which has successfully implemented this ‘triangle model’ for more than a century. “The Navy is already manufacturing ships, radars, sonars and the MoU will help institutionalize the cooperation between the Navy and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in a more tangible manner,” he added.
Two student teams that won prestigious competitions were also felicitated at the event. Mr. C. Parameswaran announced that the team comprising of Saksthisree V., Yeshwant Sripaty, Vijay S. and Anupam had competed with 75,000 others from all over the world to win the TCS prize. Another team, comprising Anudeep J, and Kowshik from Department ECE, was also honored for winning the coveted Rakuten Hackathon, by competing with 2,500 other contestants from around the world.
Naval officials including Chief Staff Officer Ishan Tandon (Technical), Head Quarters, Southern Naval Command; Sanjay Chopra, Command Engineer Officer; Captain Virendra Singh, Surgical Specialist INHS Sanjivani; Captain Nithin Cariappa, NA to FOCINC South; Harsha Joshi, Staff Engineer Officer and Lt. A Chandra Shekhar attended the event. M. Ramesh, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Coimbatore Zone; V. Sundaram, former president, Codissia and Major General (Retd.) V.N. Prasad, Vice-President, Centre Management, L&T represented the industries sector. From Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Dr. Bipin Nair, Dean, Faculty of Sciences; Col (Dr.) Vishal Marwaha, Principal, Amrita School of Medicine and Dr. Shantanu Bhowmik, Head, Research Projects participated.
