IITs and other university students will be facilitated to attend the lectures of US academics

International academics would be in India to teach in different institutes under a government sponsored-programme. The programme is a joint declaration between the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of India and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America which will help the students of different streams to get the exposure from the best faculties worldwide. The academics would teach in centrally-funded educational bodies like IITs and central universities and in institutes with ‘A’ grade. The details of the institutes will be finalised before US President Barack Obama’s visit to India.

US had agreed to India’s proposal to invite and host up to 1,000 American academics every year to teach in India under the Global Initiative For Academic Networks (GIAN) initiative during Prime Minister’s visit to US last year. GIAN aims at tapping the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs to engage with the institutes of higher education in India to augment the country's existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reforms, and further strengthen India's scientific and technological capabilities. The proposed India-US Cooperation will be beneficial in following ways:

• In adoption of newer methods of pedagogy
• Infuse creativity and innovation driven learning and professional rigour at a relatively lower cost
• Boosting research in cutting edge technologies and to build stronger academic networks between both countries.

The US faculty would undertake teaching at Indian Universities, networked research initiatives in topics of mutual interest and development of international entrepreneurship programmes by making the curriculum more industry oriented for better employability. The proposal envisages the creation of a channel for US academics in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to spend part of their time teaching in academic and research institutions across India. To start with, the programme would facilitate inviting up to 1000 faculty every year from amongst the best institutions in the US, who will be deputed to identified institutions in India.