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Felix Kahle

Head of the International Relations Unit

Email: kahle@gv.mpg.de

Science Express in India

On the way to becoming the world’s leading lipidomics centre

September 15, 2011

The second Max Planck Center in India was opened on 23 September 2011: the Indo-German Max Planck Center on Lipid Research. The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden and the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore are responsible for this project. [more]

A Joint Indo-German Pathway to Discovery

To stimulate interest in young people in India for modern science and present opportunities for education and research in India and Germany, the Max Planck Society, together with the Indian Department of Science and Technology and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, launched the Science Express in 2007. From October 2007 to June 2008, the German-Indian science train travelled 15,000 kilometres through India and at 55 stations attracted a total of over two million visitors. The train has been such a success that it is currently on tour for the fourth time under the sole responsibility of the Indian Ministry of Research & Technology. The mobile science exhibition drew a total of 6.35 million visitors.

At the beginning of October 2011, India's operator of the Science Express of the Max Planck Society received the TOI SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD in the "education" category. The prize, which is organised by the largest Indian daily newspaper, Times of India, in cooperation with J.P. Morgan, is presented by the Indian Prime Minister. [more]

India

Cooperation with India

Setting up cooperation with India – an overview

India is developing into a global player of the 21st century, and one with major economic and scientific potential – which also makes it an attractive partner for the Max Planck Society. Conversely, interest by young Indian junior scientists in Germany and in the Max Planck Society is also growing - between 1998 and 2002, the proportion of these individuals in the promotion of foreign doctoral students rose from 2.2 to 11%.

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Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Kapil Sibal, the Indian Minister for Science and Technology, supervise Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society and V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary of the Indian Department of Science and Technology as they sign a Memorandum of Understanding on their future cooperation [less]

One more reason for putting the collaboration with India on a new footing. On October 6, 2004, Max Planck President Peter Gruss and State Secretary V.S. Ramamurthy, in the presence of the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the Indian Minister for Science and Technology M. Kapil Sibal, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in New Delhi on the future scientific cooperation between the two countries. The contract provides various tools for strengthening the scientific cooperation between the Max Planck Society and research institutes in India.

The newly-established cooperation with India is turning into a success story: in 2009 alone, more than 600 junior and guest scientists from India visited Max Planck institutes - a rise of more than 80% in the past five years. In terms of the international exchange of young scientists, this has made India one of the two largest partner countries of the Max Planck Society; in the meantime, every tenth foreign doctoral student at Max Planck institutes comes from India. Many of them are involved in research as part of an International Max Planck Research School. In addition, there are almost 50 project cooperations between Max Planck institutes and research facilities in India, and offers such as Partner Groups or Max Planck India Fellowships are also developing successfully.

Since 2008, the Max Planck Society has had a representation at the German Embassy in New Delhi.

On February 3, 2010, the Federal Chancellor at the time, Horst Köhler, together with the Indian research minister, Prithviraj Chavan, opened an Indo-German Max Planck Center for Computer Science (IMPECS) at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. From the German side, the Max Planck Institutes for Computer Science and Software Systems in Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern are participating in this venture.