The Allahabad University (AU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the IndUS Setu Global Foundation at Stanford University for mutual collaboration in various fields.

The MoU was signed by AU Vice-Chancellor Prof Sangita Srivastava on behalf of the university, and Priya Tandon and Nandini Tandon on behalf of the Foundation.

The scope of the collaboration programs will be interdisciplinary, pedagogical and involving world-class academicians, industry executives, government leaders at local and national levels.

The collaboration will take place in several key emerging areas of research including information technology, environment conservation, social justice and sustainable development.

AU public relations officer (PRO), Jaya Kapoor said: “One of the key areas which the collaboration involves is encouraging innovation and entrepreneurial involvement with Silicon Valley. The training with the Silicon Valley technology industry will help in skill development and open exposure to the highest levels of research and employment opportunities.

“The MoU will provide a bridge for international exchanges between US-India around technology education”.

Under the New Education Policy, there is a stress on training to work with Information Technology with special emphasis on AI.

The MoU will help in giving a broad base to the capacity to work in this direction.

Another very important area that the MoU has agreed to develop, includes work on measures about environment conservation through encouraging global thought in the area.

It will also work on areas of healthcare.

Under the prevailing conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, it becomes all the more crucial to give attention to strategies to handle the crisis.

The proposal also hopes to achieve an understanding of how to go about the objective of sustainable development in the face of the challenges involved in achieving an optimal balance between environmental conservation and development needs.

Another key area that the MoU will cover is to increase awareness regarding social justice, humanitarianism and diversity.

The IndUS Setu Global Foundation was launched in 1994 at Stanford University.

It was set up to develop dialogue, collaboration and understanding between India, the US and their allies including Australia, Israel, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.