Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, a Vadodara-based central university of Indian Railway, signed three Memorandums of Understanding with Nokia, Plasser India and Jacobs on Monday at Rail Bhawan here to significantly strengthen the partnership between industry and academia.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is the first Chancellor of Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV), thanked the three companies for coming forward for a collaboration that will benefit the students.
“I am glad that GSV is emerging as an institution at par with IITs in the country in such a short time. Today, three MoUs are being signed. It is an important milestone. I thank Nokia, Plasser India and Jacob for coming forward. Our approach is to focus on intense industry-academia partnerships. This will enable students to be job ready by their final year in the GSV institution,” Vaishnaw said.
The first MoU, signed between Prof Manoj Choudhary (Vice-Chancellor, GSV) and Raghav Sahgal (President – Cloud and Network Services, Nokia), aims at focusing on collaboration with research in the domain of 5G/6G communications targeting air, land and sea transportation.
Prof Choudhary signed the second MoU with Siegfried Fink (Managing Director of Plasser India), which will provide an opportunity to collaborate in the area of track technology, promote industry experience and training for members of each party.
“It will also explore joint research opportunities in the transport and rail sector; provide internship and placement opportunities for the students of GSV,” a senior railway official said.
Anil Relan (Vice President and Whole-time Director of Jacobs and Prof Choudhary inked the third MoU to enhance advancement in the field of research, teaching, and training activities pertaining to transport, rail and semiconductor sector.
“The MoU will also help in establishing center(s) of excellence in semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, and railways, including development of laboratories,” the railway official said.
Besides Railway Minister, the Chairman and CEO, Railway Board Jaya Varma Sinha and senior officials were present on the occasion.
Experts from the field of rail transportation are of the view that with tremendous growth in the transportation and logistics sector as well as telecommunication sector, along with recent focus on semiconductor manufacturing in India, these MoUs are expected to create manpower for significant employment opportunities.
GSV, which is an industry-driven and innovation-led university, entered into several collaborations with leading institutions and industries across the world such as AIRBUS, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Nippon Koei, Siemens DPIIT, Karmayogi Bharat,VLSI Society of India, and Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport.
It has also partnered with IIM Mumbai, BITS Pilani, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Jodhpur, NITTTR Bhopal, PGUPS Moscow, Indian Maritime University for academic support.
GSV Vadodara was established through an Act of Parliament in 2022, to create best in class manpower and talent for the entire transportation and logistics sectors.
