India is one of the countries with which ETH wishes to cooperate more closely in the future, particularly since the country is developing very quickly with regard to research and technology. India already cooperates with many western companies and universities. Switzerland has also been working with India for decades. In particular, there is close research and economic cooperation in the field of biotechnology. For Indian students, ETH Zurich is one of the top universities when it comes to Masters courses abroad. In 2009 applications from India exceeded those from Germany.

Ralph Eichler was accompanied by two ETH professors with Indian roots, Vikram Panse, Professor of Biochemistry, and Siddharta Mischra, Professor of Mathematics, as well as Nicholas Spencer, Professor of Materials Science and President of the Research Commission, Gerhard Schmitt, delegate of the President for International Institutional Affairs, Margrit Leuthold, Director of the IIA and Gabriela Blatter, scientific coordinator for India.The journey followed the route which a delegation of the Office for International Institutional Affairs took together with the ETH Big Band in November 2009 (see article in ETH Life).

Joint workshops

The delegation visited the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi and Mumbai together with other innovative institutions, such as the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) in Delhi. Its research in the area of personalised medicine could also be of interest to individual ETH projects. A joint workshop is set to be held between both institutes in order to establish contacts.

One of the high points of the trip was the visit to the company Infosys in Bangalore, one of the largest IT and consulting companies in the world. Together with six colleagues and 250 Dollars of start-up capital, the charismatic founder of the company Narayana Murthy built up a world-wide company network in the early 80s with more than a hundred thousand employees. Today the company receives more than one million applications each year for its job adverts. The founder is particularly interested in the Future Cities Laboratory project. In addition the company offers well-paid placements for students from selected universities, which ETH Zurich wishes to take advantage of increasingly for its students.

Numerous results

A visit to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, one of the most important institutions for fundamental research in India, was also on the itinerary. TIFR is linked to ETH Zurich through long-term research cooperation, especially in the fields of physics and physical chemistry. Some professors at the TIFR studied at ETH. As a result of the visit, a joint workshop is to be held in 2011 at the Centre for NMR Spectroscopy at TIFR.

In addition to two agreements on student exchanges with the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi and Mumbai, the trip also resulted in two workshops being planned with both the IGIB and TIFR institutes. Furthermore, it was possible to obtain more industrial partners for placements. The selection process for students in India was also analysed in more detail. This promises to provide ETH with some important information regarding decisions on admission.