TUM Mumbai liaison officer Mohaa Vyas invited eminent speakers from Indian partner institutions and from TUM who are engaged in joint sustainability projects to share their valuable insights on their personal experiences of doing projects in the field of sustainability in India by highlighting distinctive aspects of Indo-German cooperation and possible challenges in such projects.
Numerous insights on the success of projects
Prof. NC Narayanan from IIT Bombay gave an insightful overview of his long-standing relationship with TUM and explained why sustainability is such a big topic in India. Prof. Peter Struss from TUM, who can draw on many years of experience in Indo-German sustainability projects, gave a presentation together with his colleague Prof. Selvamani from Vellore Institute of Technology on their joint project on model-based environmental decision support systems.
Two young researchers, Jayjayanti Basumallik and Roberto Villalba, showcased their projects on the Indian subcontinent, focusing on the water crisis and energy transition in India, and the sustainability of agricultural financing systems and climate-smart agriculture.
Working together in times of Covid-19
The expert panel raised valuable points for being successful in projects, such as appropriate funding proposals and detecting gaps in financing well in advance. All researchers agreed unanimously on the point that communication in cross border projects has become much harder with the pandemic and has led to stalling progress and field trips. Of course, digital technology always helps bridge the gap but the element of a personal meeting is sorely being missed.
The final interactive Q&A session sparked lively interest among the audience, which consisted of TUM professors, young scientists, TUM alumni, students from TUM, and Indian partner universities.
TUM Mumbai is looking forward to more Indo-German collaboration
TUM Mumbai hopes for many more such interesting and interactive sessions in the future that can showcase the innovative collaborative projects between India and TUM. If you are currently working on a project with India or are in the process of establishing one, please contact Mohaa Vyas.
Interested in Indo-German cooperation projects? Learn more about the joint endeavor of TUM, IIT Bombay, and IIT Kharagpur: Exploration. An Indo-German Partnership