ARCHIVED MEDIA RELEASE
PA/3/2003 4 February 2003
Education, biotechnology and ICT unite Australia and India
Leading education, biotechnology and ICT experts from Australia and India have gathered in Bangalore to identify how to face the research challenges of the emerging "Knowledge Economy".
The Conference, Education in the Knowledge Economy, has been jointly organised by the Australian High Commission, New Delhi, and the Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry. It will focus on research associated with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and biotechnology.
The Australian High Commissioner to India, Ms Penny Wensley AO, described the conference as "a reflection of what Australia and India can achieve by working together".
"Our two countries share strengths in many fields of research associated with ICT and biotechnology, so it is natural they work together to achieve greater outcomes in these areas," she said.
Ms Wensley was part of the distinguished panel that today inaugurated Education in the Knowledge Economy. The panel included the Honourable Mr Peter Beattie MP, Premier and Minister for Trade of the State of Queensland, Australia, as well the Chairman of the Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry Harbans Thukral.
Speakers and participants at the conference have been drawn from some of the premier education and scientific and technology research institutions of Australia and India. Experts from institutions such as the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Information Technology, and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, will discuss issues with their counterparts from Australia drawn from the University of New South Wales, Flinders University, Griffith University, Monash University, and the University of Queensland.
High Commissioner Wensley said that the new knowledge age involved intangible assets such as human and intellectual capacity, which outstripped traditional assets such as land, labour and capital as the drivers of economic and social growth.
"If our countries are to take a full and active part in the new economy, based on the value of our intellectual capital, we need to stimulate, nurture and reward creativity and entrepreneurship," said Ms Wensley.
For further details, please contact Mr Quentin Stevenson-Perks, Counsellor (Education and Training), Australian High Commission, New Delhi, Mobile: 9810 698 007.