New Delhi, 1st April 2016: NCR-based O. P. Jindal Global University has entered into a tie up with Peking University, China for a major collaborative research program involving students from both sides on environmental challenges faced by the two fast developing nations.
As leaders of the developing world, India and China face enormous environmental challenges in their quest for growth and development. In most cases, the challenges surface due to a benign approach to persistent environmental degradation over the last few years.
In such a scenario, the two leading educational institutions from both countries will launch a large scale program to promote research on environmental issues and highlight the humanitarian and climatic challenges being experienced by local communities in both countries.
Environmental issues such as air and water pollution, land degradation, soil fertility, sporadic monsoon patterns and climate change need deeper engagement between stakeholders of the two countries. This engagement must go beyond the deliberation and policy discourse led by the governments. As socially conscious academic institutions, the two Universities want to produce tangible research outcomes that can influence government policy.
The MoUs were inked this week between O. P Jindal Global University Vice Chancellor Prof (Dr) C Raj Kumar and Prof CAO Heping, Dean School of Economics, Department of Environment, Resources & Development Economics, Peking University on behalf of the institutions.
“India and China together constitute a bulk of humanity with 40% of the global population. As two of the world’s fastest growing economies, these nations are also drivers of the global economy. The two nations also face enormous environmental challenges that have the potential to make growth unsustainable. From declining soil fertility to unbreathable air and contaminated water, the problems faced by the two countries are quite similar. Our collaboration will foster indigenous research on environmental issues and through facts and outcomes would try to influence policy making,” says O. P. Jindal Global University Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) C Raj Kumar.
The joint initiative will involve cross learning exchange programs for students with extensive and diversified joint research within China and India focusing on key environmental challenges facing communities. Students from India will travel to different Chinese provinces while students from China will travel to different Indian states to study first-hand the environmental degradation and related challenges faced by local communities.
This cooperation aims to fundamentally align resources in mitigating environmental issues. The result of the joint research will be showcased as part of a documentary to highlight environment concerns at the grass root levels.
The documentary research will be undertaken in the summer months from May-July 2016.
About Peking University
Peking University is a national university of China with its campus situated at Haidian District in the western suburb of Beijing, with a total area of 2,743,532 square metres. It is an outstanding faculty, including 53 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 7 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and 14 members of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). The university has effectively combined research on important scientific subjects with the training of personnel with a high level of specialized knowledge and professional skill as demanded by the country’s socialist modernization. It strives not only for improvements in teaching and research work, but also for the promotion of interaction and mutual promotion among various disciplines.
About O.P. Jindal Global University
JGU is a non-profit global university established by the Haryana Private Universities (Second Amendment) Act, 2009. JGU is established in memory of Mr. O.P. Jindal as a philanthropic initiative of Mr. Naveen Jindal, the Founding Chancellor. The University Grants Commission has accorded its recognition to O.P. Jindal Global University. The vision of JGU is to promote global courses, global programs, global curriculum, global research, global collaborations, and global interaction through a global faculty. JGU is situated on a 80-acre state-of-the art residential campus in the National Capital Region of Delhi. JGU is one of the few universities in Asia that maintains a 1:15 faculty-student ratio and appoints faculty members from different parts of the world with outstanding academic qualifications and experience. JGU has established five schools: Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global Business School, Jindal School of International Affairs, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy and Jindal School of Liberal Arts & Humanities.