French delegation visits Panjab University 

Chandigarh: A French delegation comprising of Mr. Emmanuel LEBRUN-DAMIENS, Counsellor for Education, Science & Culture at Embassy of France in India (COCAC), also the Country Director, French Institute in India, Isabelle, Cultural Attache, Embassy of France and Ophelie Belin, Director, Alliance Francaise Le Corbusier, Chandigarh and Margo Girarn, National Coordination of CF, India visited Panjab University, Chandigarh today with the objective of joint future collaborative programmes with France. They met Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh along with PU Faculty at CIL, PU.

 Vice Chancellor in his welcome address informed that this University is a prestigious University of the country with its old Heritage status and advanced facilities. It has 78 departments providing 150 courses in various fields. Informing about high rankings and its consistent position in pharmacy and sports for many years, he highlighted the achievements in various fields. Referring to his meeting with the Ambassador of France Emannuel LENAIN, early during the day, he added that India and France are both very enthusiastic about joint degree programs, collaborative researches and setting up of joint labs. He said that need of the hour is that the faculty and students get an opportunity for exchange. 

The Country Director expressed his pleasure on being with the faculty of Panjab University and said that he is looking forward to developing partnership with the most prestigious University of the country. He added that with the the new economy development in the country, France would like to collaborate on Artificial Intelligence, Medicine Environment Engineering and Science. He shared that by engaging with the world, the Universities in France wants to have major hubs of excellence in India and specially with PU. There are diverse topics which can be explored and more than willing to come to India and vice versa. Right now the focus is to develop conversation with India and start relationships for long term growth in programs by signing agreements and developing personal relationships. He added that we need to work on solutions keeping in mind the huge political momentum in both the governments with lot of bilateral agreements being signed, there is lot to benefit from this.

Earlier, Professor Nandita Singh, Dean International Students while welcoming the delegation to PU, introduced everyone present and informed that this is the primary round of discussions with the French delegation to explore possibilities of future agreements and faculty and student exchange programs. She informed that by initiating these discussions, PU is looking for joint degrees, joint research and joint laboratories in future.
 

Professor V.R.Sinha, Dean Research in his interaction informed that already two MoUs are existing with France. Talking about UIPS he informed about the technology transfers, patents and consultancy work being provided to the industry by the pharmacy department. He informed about the strong collaborative work of UIPS and about 100% placement of students of pharmacy. He briefly explained about various departments in Panjab University and the courses being offered by them.

Professor Prince Sharma ,Dean Sciences informed that around 500 students are enrolled for various undergraduate programs in the Honours School System of PU. He briefly informed about the research going on in the microbiology department with special reference medical microbiology and vaccinology. The main focus of microbiology department is to collaborate with the industry for antimicrobial resistance to combat microorganisms.
 

Prof. G R Chaudhary, Director, Central Instrumentation Laboratory informed about the wide range of sophisticated equipment which are being used for academics and industry. He shared that the facility is catering to the needs of industry in the region and even samples from all across the nation are received by CIL.

Prof .Upasana Joshi, Director, University Institute of Applied Management Sciences(UIAMS) and Prof Sanjiv Sharma informed about various courses being run by the institute and also shared about the summer exchange programs for their students. She informed that this year 36 foreign students have been enrolled under ICCR program

Prof. Savita Gupta, Director, University Institute of Engineering & Technology(UIET) informed that their department is the biggest department of PU with multi disciplinary courses being run and also informed about the summer training exchange internships availed by the students.

Prof. Anish Slath, Director, University Institute of Hotel And Tourism Management, while explaining about various courses under his department, said that he is looking forward to encourage students to come to PU for learning culinary skills.

Dr. Rohit Sharma, Director, Microbial BioTechnology, informed about the multi disciplinary incubation space being created to cater to all verticals. He informed about the Bionest Technonlogy and the large number of partnerships it is offering.

Prof. Harish Kumar, UIET highlighted the faculty projects which are currently being taken up with Universities in France.