India Abroad November 30, 2012 5CANADA SPECIAL

Carleton University’s Canada-India Centre for Exce-llence in Science, Technology, Trade and Policy cele-brates Canada and India’s commitment to achieving

common goals of brilliance in education, health and sci-ence.

The center was established in Ottawa with the supportand financial contributions of the Indo-Canadian commu-nity and the Indian government two years ago. It takespride in its faculty and the kind of scholars it attracts eachyear.

“What we are looking at Carleton is educational, tradeand policy development objectives as well as exchange pro-grams,” says Pradeep Merchant, board member and donor,Canada-India Center.

Vancouver-based businessman BarjDhahan, who has established an annu-al lecture — the Budh Singh andKashmir Kaur Dhahan lecture —named after his parents at Carleton,says, “Many faculty members are for-mer Canadian diplomats, civil servantsand politicians who have perspectiveson policies that affect not onlyCanadians but Canada’s relationshipwith countries like India.”

Dhahan donated $100,000 to thecenter and also helped raise over$500,000 for it.

Businessman Sudhir Handa and hiswife Ruth, who donated $500,000 forthe center, say that during the Liberalregime, people had misconceptionsabout India, but the Canada-IndiaCenter has helped to put things in per-spective, insofar as relations betweenthe two countries are concerned.

The objective of establishing the cen-

ter is to celebrate ‘a mutual desire to build trade partner-ships and scientific and cultural links,’ says CarletonUniversity.

University President Roseann O’Reilly Runte adds thatthe life size bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi — donatedto the center by the Indian high commission last year — atthe entrance, reminds visitors of Gandhi’s words, 'Let thewinds of the world blow through the doors and windows ofmy house but I will not be blown away.'

AJIT JAIN

Dr Pradeep Merchant, a donor and founderboard member of Carleton University’sCanada-India Center for Excellence inScience, Technology, Trade and Policy,recalls how the center was establishedAugust 2, 2010.

“Initially the idea for the center wasbetween the (then) high commissioner ofIndia (S M Gavai), (then) deputy high com-missioner (Narinder Chauhan) and theleadership from the Indian Diaspora fromacross the country.”

“Some of us embraced the idea and decid-ed to donate for the cause — and raised$3.5 million,” he says.

“When the project was actually given tous, our idea was to establish a centre wherepoliticians, academicians, and entrepre-neurial Indo-Canadian and Canadianscould come together in developing progres-sive policies and trade between India andCanada. And subsequently with the associ-ation of Carleton University, academicians

and technical people came on board andhence science and technology came intoplay.”

As part of the efforts to seek federal fund-ing, Merchant and Carleton UniversityPresident Dr Rosseane Runte met ForeignAffairs Minister John Baird early last year.“We told him about the center and dis-cussed with him thefinancial support that wewere seeking. W ealso discussed how muchmoney we would be ableto raise from the commu-nity,” Merchant says.

“Baird arranged ameeting with FinanceMinister Jim Flaherty.However, he said hewouldn’t be able to giveus any money directly ashe would have to justifythat in the budget.”

That’s how Flahertybrought in the idea of

creating a competition among people whocould potentially support the center,Merchant adds.

He claims that the Canada-IndiaResearch Centre of Excellence competition— won by the India-Canada Centre forInnovative Multidisciplinary Partnershipto Accelerate Transformation and

Sustainability (ICIMPACTS) — for whichPrime Minister StephenHarper announced $30million funding duringhis visit to India, “wasactually given by us.”Carleton, which alsoparticipated in the com-petition lost.

“But even though thecenter (competition)was our idea, we haven’tso far received anymoney from the federalgovernment,” Merchantsays.

He was in Mumbai three weeks ago andhad a series of meetings with heads ofmany educational institutions.

For conducting scientific and technologi-cal activities, the center brought in Dr L KMaheshwari, retired dean and vice chan-cellor, Birla Institute of TechnologicalScience in Pilani, as their first scientificadvisor in India.

“In the education sector, the US, the UK,Australia have marketed themselves verywell and many Indian parents want to sendtheir kids to these countries for higher edu-cation. But Canada was never part of theequation for lack of its brand name,”Merchant says.

“Canada should make out its case to Indiathat it is a safer country and we have toshow that we are no different or less thanthe US if you choose an affordable, friendlydestination.”

He says the main problem that mostIndian students face is that “our educationfor international students is relativelyexpensive, particularly when subsidies andthe scholarships and the fellowships don’tcome by that easily to some of those stu-dents.”

“The second issue is that our immigrationsystem is stringent and very restrictive. Aregular complaint that I heard in India wasthat Canada doesn’t give student visas thateasily and it is a very frustrating process,”he adds.

Establishing Canada as a top education destination in India

Ajit Jain examines the Canada-IndiaCenter’s role in forging ties betweenthe two nations

Passage to India

Above, a delegation from the National Defence College of India at theCanada-India Center with Narinder Chauhan, acting Indian high commissioner to Canada, and Carleton university staff Left, the River Building at Carleton University that houses the Canada-India Center

Dr Pradeep Merchant

CANADA-INDIA CENTRE

6 CANADA SPECIAL India Abroad November 30, 2012

ROSEANN O’REILLY RUNTE

Building on an established record of solid perform-ance, the Canada-India Center for Excellence inScience, Technology, Trade and Policy brings togeth-

er people and institutions efficiently, effectively and intelli-gently. Knowledge of international conditions, strong net-works and sensitivity to cultural differences enable the cen-tre to lead in enhancing the Canada-India dialogue.

The center is unique in that it is both international andtruly national, providing a focal point in Canada’s capitalfor members of the Indo-Canadian community to join in acommon dialogue supporting economic development,research and educational initiatives that will build bridgesbetween Canada and India.

The center brings together faculty and students,researchers and business leaders from both nations.

It is founded on the history and strengths of this vibrantcommunity as well as those of Carleton University, knownfor its excellent international programs.

The Indo-Canadian community in Canada is remarkablefor its belief in education and its support of Canadian edu-cational institutions, as well as its encouragement of thenext generation to avail itself of the opportunities available.

From British Columbia to Nova Scotia and New-foundland, Indo-Canadians contribute actively to ournation. This center in Ottawa, gives prominence to theirsuccess and offers them a central node to bring their com-munities together in a vibrant network to advance theagenda for research and economic development in bothnations.

A quarter of a century of historic ties and agreements linkCarleton University to India. Faculty and students haveshared knowledge and partnered on research initiativeslong before the centre was established in 2010.

The Department of Philosophy had strong ties with theUniversity of Delhi, Music and Architecture with Pune, andEngineering and Science with the Birla Institute ofTechnology and Science, Pilani.

In addition, numerous individual professors had studiedin India and were proficient in several of the many lan-guages spoken on the Indian subcontinent. Their fields ofinterest ranged from electronics, geography, environmentalstudies, business, anthropology and computer science toeconomics, political science, literature and chemistry.

Numerous students spent a semester or a year abroad inIndia and the number grew every year with the students’delighted reports of their experience and the helpful estab-lishment of the Ontario scholarship program.

Carleton University’s strategic plan focused on four areasof strength and critical inquiry: the environment, health,digital medial and globalization. Each also linked Canadaand India as both nations share the desire to find solutionsto the challenges posed in each of these areas which areimportant both to the development of the population andthe economy.

At the invitation of the former high commissioner of

‘A hub forCanadianswishing tolearn moreabout India’

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Roseann O'Reilly Runteat the BITS PilaniHyderabad campus inFebruary 2011

India Abroad November 30, 2012 7CANADA SPECIAL

AJIT JAIN

Anil Maheshwari, professor, school ofcomputer science, Carleton, says,“Our research group regularly

attracts top-quality students and visitors,from among the best Indian research insti-tutes, like the Tata Institute ofFundamental Research, the Indian Instit-ute of Science, the Indian StatisticalInstitute, Chennai’s Mathematical Instituteand the Birla Institute of Technology andSciences.”

Maheshwari, a member of the university’scomputational geometry group — consist-ing of 20 members, including Ayan Nandy,an Indian doctoral student onCommonwealth scholarship— specializes in the designand analysis of algorithms inthe field of graph theory.

He says besides Nandy,another Indian student fromChennai’s MathematicalInstitute will soon join thegroup.

Maheshwari is activelyinvolved with Indianresearchers in designingalgorithms for graph andgeometric problems in theo-retical computer sciences.

“I have also lectured in sev-eral promotional workshopsin India in the field of graphand geometric algorithms,”he says.

“The collaborationsbetween Carleton’s compu-tational geometry andIndian institutions doingoutstanding research onsimilar lines should increasebut funds for bilateralresearch projects are lack-ing.”

Maheshwari laments thatresearch money is negligiblewith very few scholarshipsand almost no institutionalsupport. “Foreign studentsare treated differently thandomestic students in termsof fees structure,” he says.

“A two-year master’sdegree in Canada could costclose to $70,000, which’s aconsiderable amount forIndian students.”

At a time when India is aglobal buzzword, there’s still “less aware-ness among Canadian universities in termsof recent growth in Indian academics andresearch,” he adds.

Maheswari doesn’t put the blame solelyon Canada, as there’s equally “less aware-ness among Indian students about thepotential in Canadian universities.”

This is obvious from the fact that inrecent years the “number of applicationsfor graduate programs from India hasdropped significantly,” he says.

But Maheshwari offers some solutions.He wants to start with establishing jointIndo-Canadian Universities ResearchCouncils in engineering, sciences, comput-er science, social sciences, etc.

He says he wants to lay emphasis on “fac-ulty development” and the establishment ofbilateral research grants through federalfunding agencies as that could be “the maincatalyst for joint (Canada-India) researchwork.”

His recommendations to increase realresearch collaborations and exchange ofstudents and faculty include: “Establishingsignificant number of scholarships and sab-baticals, post-doctoral fellows and substan-tial number of scholarships for junior facul-

ty members who could pursue part of theirresearch work at a Canadian Institution;creation of funding for research promotionworkshops and work term placements ofgraduate students in Indian and Canadianacademic institutions and industries.”

Maheshwari is also an adjunct professorat BITS, Pilani. His research collaborationsare with Indian institutions, like IITKharagpur and Chennai’s and the comput-er science group at Chennai MathematicalInstitute.

LINA KALFAYAN

The Canada-India Center for Excellence in Science, Technology, Trade and Policyseeks innovative solutions to bilateral issues through communications, exchange,research and economic development.

It brings together the Indo-Canadian community across the country and builds bridgesacross oceans to create opportunities for bilateral work in areas including energy, environ-ment (especially water), agriculture, health, digital technology and sustainable and inclu-sive community development.

The center is about people and has received visits from dignitaries, including Dr(Rajagopal) Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor (to the government of India); Dr(Sukhdev) Thorat, head of the (Indian) Universities Grants Commission and Dr

(Daggubati) Purandeswari,(Indian) minister of statefor human resource devel-opment (higher education),among others.

Members of the center’sboard and CarletonUniversity’s board of gover-nors have travelled to India,representing the center at avariety of important meet-ings and conferences.

The center is aboutexchanges and has a net-work of nine universities inCanada and more than adozen in India. It is aboutinnovation and has promot-ed internship exchangesand opportunities for schol-ars to travel between bothnations.

The center has offices inNew Delhi, Mumbai andChennai, as well as inOttawa.

A statue of Gandhi, walk-ing forward with his walk-ing stick and garbed simplyin his dhoti, symbolicallyreminds us of the necessityof moving with humilitytoward the future.

We are able to do thisthanks to the generosity ofthe high commission ofIndia and the Indo-Canadian communityacross Canada. Togetherthey have contributedapproximately $3.5 millionto make this center sustain-able.

In addition, the depart-ment of foreign affairs, theShastri Institute, the

Association of Colleges and Universities of Canada, along with businesses like AGF, Tata,CORE Group and Wesley Clover, have made it possible for the center to achieve the suc-cess it has in the short period of its existence.

As it moves into the future, the center will redouble its efforts and concentrate its ener-gies on maximizing the benefits of the collaborative agreements already established, focus-ing on several geographic and thematic areas, and strengthening the pan-Canadian net-work of members and supporters.

Dr Lina Kalfayan is the director of operations, Canada-India Center for Excellence

Building bridges tocreate opportunitiesfor bilateral work

Finding ways to overcome fund crunch

Dr Lina Kalfayan

Dr Anil Maheshwari

8 CANADA SPECIAL India Abroad November 30, 2012

AJIT JAIN

Professor P R Sundararajan, department of chemistry,Carleton University, says in 2005 when he was inChennai — on a lecture tour at the Indian Institute of

Technology, Madras and the Central Leather ResearchInstitute — Anna University’s Professor MuthusamySarojadevi invited him for a seminar at the university’s chem-istry department. And that is how his col-laborative research with her began.

“This (seminar at Anna University) hasnow become a regular feature whenever Ivisit India,” he says.

Sundararajan’s research focuses on poly-mer nano-composites, porous polymers andgels while Sarojadevi’s work is on poly-imides, (which are polymers that can toler-ate high temperatures (300° C) and used inthe aerospace industry.

Sundararajan says their research involvesfabrication of nano-composites of polymersto enhance their strength and heat toler-ance. “The research also includes prepara-tion of these polymers using modern tech-niques like microwave heating (rather thanusing a common heating source like a regu-lar oven),” he adds.

In 2008, he received a one-time $20,000grant from the Shastri Indo-CanadaInstitute to initiate collaborations withSarojadevi. Two PhD students from AnnaUniversity spent four months inSundararajan’s laboratory at CarletonUniversity to learn new techniques forpreparing polymers.

“Their work formed part of their PhD the-sis. A few papers from their work were pub-lished in scientific journals,” he says.

One of the students, Dr PalaniappanSelvakumar, was able to get a two-year post-doctoral position at University of Alberta.He is now an assistant professor in a collegein Tamil Nadu.

The other student, Dr Anuradha Ganesan, secured aresearch position at Battelle Memorial Institute in theirMalaysia unit, and is now at their Pune branch.

The success of this collaboration has led to awarding aseries of Commonwealth scholarships since 2010, whichenable Sundararajan to host PhD students from Sarojadevi’sgroup for six months

“This is a win-win situation,” he says. “The grant money islimited these days. Visiting students from India are trainedin techniques and research areas that are not readily avail-able to them in their home institutions. Their research com-ponent here is very different and they are not doing the samething here that they would have done in India.”

Sundararajan adds that the exposure of these students toCanadian research environment and Carleton gives them aninternational perspective.

“I believe that we have done the job right because, youknow, with any professor, a major part of our commitment ismentoring. And if we have done that correctly, sure, the stu-dents will succeed,” he says.

AJIT JAIN

Dr Shikharesh Majumdar of thedepartment of computer science,Carleton University, specializes in

that new tech buzzword, cloud computing.Besides being useful for small and large

companies, cloud computing can have myr-iad uses, he explained.

“We are looking at clouds,” he said, “forunifying geographically dispersedresources, for example, powerful comput-ers, archival databases containing bridgeinformation and data analysis tools, formanaging bridges… If management ofbridges can even be partially automated,then this cost can be reduced significantly.”

“The authorities have installed sensors on

lots of bridges. All thissensor data from abridge can be collectedand analyzed to makedecisions related to themaintenance of thebridges.”

Emergency handling isalso an important issue.

“Let us say that a bigstorm has come andoperators want advice onwhether the bridge needsto be closed,” Majumdarsaid.

“First of all he or shehas to find an expert ondemand for generating

this advice. The bridgeemergency may be inToronto and the expertmight be in Saskatoonand he may need a toolavailable at CarletonUniversity in Ottawa.”

Here, cloud technologycomes into play. “The jobof the cloud is to makethis desired tool availableon demand to the expert,”he explained.

“Our research project istrying to address resourcemanagement issues forsuch scenarios… In a dif-ferent situation a user

may have a program that s/he wants to runon a powerful computer which s/he doesn’thave. So the user asks the cloud for thatspecific type of computer. The cloud locatesit and provides the user with access to thatcomputer.”

The research on the data from bridges issponsored by the Ontario Centers ofExcellence and is being done in collabora-tion with Cistel Technology, Ottawa.

Majumdar also works on mobile systems.“It is always a challenge to host an applica-tion in the mobile system because of itsresource constraints,” he explained.

He went to India in 2010. “I am trying to start research collabora-

tion with the Mody Institute (of Scienceand Technology, in Rajasthan),” he said.

AJIT JAIN

Sakthi Dharan ChettichipalayamPrabhakaran and Sudha Venkatachalamfrom Anna University, Chennai, who are

being mentored by Professor P R Sundararajan atCarleton University for six months through theCommonwealth Scholarship program, say thelaboratory facilities at the university have helpedtheir research move ahead in a timely manner.

“We are working in the field of nano composites,in order to fabricate polymeric materials withenhanced thermal and mechanical properties. Inaddition, Professor Sundararajan is training us onthe very fundamental science of these materials,”says Prabhakaran.

“In our home department in India, even someroutine analysis of our materials would take aslong as a month, and cause significant delay in ourprogress when we wait for those analyses. AtCarleton these could be done within a day or two.”

At their university in Chennai they were work-ing solely on the applications, but their work at aCarleton “includes making gels of these poly-mers. This is again a new area that we are beingintroduced to. This will form part of our doctor-ate thesis,” says Venkatachalam.

Sundararajan is working in aerogel applica-tions, which is a new field for both.

“It is also good for visiting students as they geta chance to operate a number of instruments bythemselves and it is an additional opportunityfor them,” concludes Prabhakaran.

Other scholarships that the center offersinclude the Kanta Marwah Research Grant inpeace and security — which provides a six-month research grant up to $10,000 forresearch in topics related to conflict resolutionand human development.

This research grant is set up as a memorial toMahatma Gandhi — and the ICCR (IndianCouncil for Cultural Relations) Visiting Chair inhumanities and social sciences. Under this pro-gram Carleton University will host the Chair fora four-month semester during each academicyear for a period of five years.

How cloud computing can help the management of bridges

Making the mostof scholarships

Collaboratingto mentor students

Professor P R Sundararajan, seated, with Sudha Venkatachalam, left, and Sakthi Dharan Chettichipalayam Prabhakaran

Dr ShikhareshMajumdar

AJIT JAIN

India Abroad November 30, 2012 9CANADA SPECIAL

AJIT JAIN

Dr Sukeshi Kamra says she was excited, when in a review ofits curriculum, Carleton University’s English departmentput South Asia on the syllabus for its two second year cours-

es. One of these introduced students to Vedic, medieval, and Mughal

literature and the other covered the colonial to the contemporaryperiod in India.

“Most of my students have found the material about Vedic litera-ture captivating,” she says.

Kamra who teaches translated texts, concedes she is not aSanskrit scholar and neither do her students have any knowledgeof the language, but they appreciate the texts.

“What they appear to havefound fascinating is the fact thatthey were studying the culturalproduction of a people that theythought in many ways unfamil-iar to them,” she says.

“The attempt at teaching acourse, which begins with theVedas and ends with travelogeswritten by the first Britishers toset foot in India, has been formy students to have a sense of acivilization with a long traditionof debate over matters, bothesoteric and common.”

Kamra says a number of herstudents are intrigued by Vedicliterature and philosophy andthey respond well to the chants,“but the Bhagavad Gita poses aproblem, and that being of howto participate in violent con-frontation.”

She adds that although theCanada-India Center is focusedon science and technology, thearts and social sciences are keyto tapping the rich cultural,philosophical, and literary his-tories and traditions of SouthAsia.

AJIT JAIN

Dr H Masud Taj, adjunct professor,Azrieli School of Architecture andUrbanism, Carleton University, says

his expertise in Islamic architecture and hisformative years in India have a bearing onhis teaching at Carleton.

For six years, he has been volunteering fora non-governmental organization in NewDelhi and offering his expertise as an archi-tect and teacher in universities and collegesin Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

Taj says he found “absenteeism in schoolsof architecture” in these Indian citiesalarming.

“I think India is a delightful palimpsest ofseveral worlds – all it needs is catalysts thatcan make cross-connections. The almostanarchic conditions there portend an emer-gence that none can now foretell, but aboutwhich I am hopeful,” he adds.

Taj studied architecture at the BandraSchool of Art (now L H Raheja School of

Art) in Mumbai andgot his post-profes-sional degree in 2000researching the inter-face between films andarchitecture, but hedoes not confine hislectures only to thesubject. He brings inpoetry and calligraphyin his research.

His topics includeIslamic art, architec-ture and ideas at theCenter of Initiatives ineducation.

“This year I was acritic at a conservationworkshop at the School of Planning andArchitecture, New Delhi and also delivered‘Guftagu: A Conversation on Architecture’at the ‘Forum of Exchange and Excellencein Design in Pune, where they have nineschools of architecture,” he says.

Next year, Taj isready to present hissummer product —eight days inside theBodlein Library atOxford Universityresearching 17th cen-tury documents, anddetails of his archi-tectural tour inMadrid, Toledo,Cordoba andAlhambra beforereaching India andthen to Mecca beforereturning to Ottawato teach in the falland winter.

Taj has published a book titled NariGandhi on the talented Indian architectand collaborated with poet Bruce Meyer topublish Alphabestiary, featured at theInternational Festival of Authors inToronto last year.

AJIT JAIN

The linkages between various depart-ments of Carleton University andIndian universities have been

increasing for some time, more so after theCanada-India Center for Excellence wasestablished, says Dr Jay Drydyk, professorof philosophy at Carleton.

In 2009 the philosophy departments ofthe university and the University of Ottawasigned a memorandum of understandingwith their counterparts at Delhi Universityand also the Center for Philosophy,Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Following that MOU, five faculty mem-bers from the University of Delhi philoso-phy department, were invited to Ottawa toattend a small workshop on ‘ human rightsand relativism.’

“The next two years in succession, facultymembers from Carleton were hosted by

Delhi University,” says Drydyk. “In July, wehosted four of them again. So it’s been avery active exchange with faculty.”

These interactions, he adds, focused on“human rights, the cultural basis and cul-tural understanding of human rights andwhat we can learn from Indian traditionsand what we can teach them.”

Drydyk explains how one of his col-leagues from Delhi University spoke aboutdharma and how it could almost replacethe idea of a moral right and could justifylegal rights.

“One of the participants was a Gandhianscholar. So she spoke about the way Gandhiunderstood human rights. It wasn’t theWestern way, based on theory. It was aGandhian way based on experience andpractice,” he adds.

At Delhi University Drydyk recently gavetwo lectures on theories of justice, which isone of his areas of research.

It is not only the MOUs but also theexchange of scholars that has resulted incloser interactions, he says.

Carleton’s philosophy department hostedtwo graduates from Delhi University for afew months.

Graduate student Kia Dunn will travel toDelhi to study Buddhist ethics and modernIndian political philosophy — Gandhi,Tagore, Ambedkar.

Social sciences — a key to tappingcultural traditions of South Asia

‘India needs catalysts that can make cross-connections’

Reaping benefits ofexchange programs

Dr Sukeshi Kamra

Dr H Masud Taj

Dr Jay DrydykAJIT JAIN

India S M Gavai, Carleton’s president went to India (in 2010)to build on these common interests and strengths. This trip andsubsequent visits, which included members of the Board ofCarleton University, the vice president (Research) and the direc-tor of Carleton International, resulted in the establishment ofstrong ties with a number of universities and IITs, with businessand industry, and good relations with the government of Indiawhich provided a chair for the University.

The Acting High Commissioner of India Narinder Chauhanbrought representatives of the Indo-Canadian community fromacross Canada together to create the foundation for the Centrein Canada in (2010).

Over the course of a few months, the center took shape andthe founding board succeeded in raising over $3.5 million inpledges.

The center has established an impressive track record in cre-ating viable international and national networks, promotinginnovative exchanges and joint research projects, tying them toeconomic and community development and serving as a hub forboth the Indo-Canadian community and Canadians wishing tolearn more about India.

At the same time, the center has been the venue for numerouslectures, cultural events and major conferences. Of special notewas the bilateral Conference on Innovation, which broughttogether experts from both nations via technology and on site toestablish a high-level platform, which will permit deep divesinto areas including investing, agriculture, technology and geo-spatial design.

The bilateral Conference on Education demonstrated first thecooperative ability of the center as the conference was organizedjointly with the Department of Foreign Affairs of Canada, theHigh Commission of India, the Shastri Institute and theAssociation of Colleges and Universities of Canada.

The conference brought together 24 vice chancellors, presi-dents, provosts and vice presidents to study the roadblocks tojoint projects, programs and degrees, as well as to establishingviable exchange programs.

Realizing the need for collaboration with universities acrossCanada to respond to the vast opportunities for exchanges andsharing, Carleton University joined with Simon Fraser,Saskatchewan, Waterloo, Guelph, Ryerson, Ottawa, Laval andthe University of New Brunswick to work together in the areasof technology and social innovation to leverage research, inno-vation, entrepreneurship and resources to fuel economicgrowth. Specific fields targeted were energy, environment andhealth.

While this network has not yet been awarded a major grant,which would permit the rapid development of the vision, workis still continuing and is supported by individual research grantsand contracts as well as the generous support of industry.

While the center has been engaged actively in promotingresearch and development, it has not neglected the promotionof community.

Carleton’s president has traveled across Canada meetingmembers of the community, speaking to Rotary clubs and doinginterviews on radio and television networks. The centre, withthe support of the Indian high commission, has sponsored writ-ers, a film festival, concerts and visits by significant delegationsfrom India.

The inaugural Dhahan lecture (in October) by former IndianPresident A P J Abdul Kalam set a gold standard for such eventsand will be replicated in coming years in different locations andwith video streaming to permit participation by the broadercommunity.

The center’s goals for the future include broadening the scopeof the activities across Canada and focusing the scope of activi-ties strategically and geographically in India.

Roseann O’Reilly Runte is the president and vice-chancellor ofCarleton University

AJIT JAIN

Professor Fraser Taylor, department of geography,Carleton University, says that in the last five to sixyears some dramatic changes have taken place in

India in terms of sharing location data. “Earlier, a government official or any other person

would be put in jail if you shared the map. Now, as aresult of pressure from industry, academia and otherpeople, the Indian government has released much loca-tional data,” he adds. “As a result, location-based indus-tries are growing rapidly in India.”

Fraser says he is directly involved in the proposedestablishment of the new Geomatics Indian Institute ofTechnology in Hyderabad for which the land has beenbought, funding is also in place and people are busydeveloping the curriculum and the programs.

But there is still a debate as to whether it should be astandalone institute or be part of the geomatics depart-ments in the existing Indian Institutes of Technology.

“As a result of constant interaction with India in this

field, we are very well-placed to take this cooperation toa new level, both in terms of student exchange (throughthe Canada-India Center for Excellence) and interactionwith governments,” he says.

Taylor has been visiting India for over 30 years, teach-ing at IIT-Bombay and also interacting closely with var-ious departments of the Indian government.

“My first interaction with India came through themapping field,” he says. “I’ve been watching the develop-ment of maps and locations in India for many years. It’svery interesting to watch the development as we movealong from traditional maps to new forms of interactionin all fields using location as a key.”

One of the challenges still facing India is that each ofthe ministries does its own thing, Taylor adds.

“What is vitally important for the future is to get thesesilos to interact with each other and one of the ways ofdoing that is to take the data and the information thateach ministry creates for itself in India, Canada andother countries, and find a way to link these data sets,”he suggests.

AJIT JAIN

Professor Shibu Pal of theSprott School of Business,Carleton University, says

despite his numerous efforts, hehasn’t succeeded in establishing anycollaboration with Indian institu-tions.

“We had a program at Khandalain 2009, that we ran for fourcohorts, but it had to be stopped.The education regulations and edu-cation environment in India madeit impossible to operate,” he says.

Pal and his colleagues at Carleton

have been talking for sometimeabout starting a master’s programin business administration withanother institution in Mumbai,part of Mumbai University.“However, I have not got any sig-nals from there. It is quite challeng-ing to engage with India,” he says.

On a trip to India last year Palspoke to the registrar and vicechancellor of Santiniketan in WestBengal, with the aim of connectingCarleton with the university. Hesays although the authoritiesappreciated the idea, nothing cameof it.

Page 6

‘A hub for Canadianswishing to learn moreabout India’

‘It’s challenging to engage with India’

Linking data sets for rapid growth

ProfessorShibu Pal

Professor Fraser Taylor

COURTESY: CARLETON UNIVERSITY

10 CANADA SPECIAL India Abroad November 30, 2012

India Abroad November 30, 2012 11INTERVIEW/CANADA SPECIAL

The Canada-India Centre for Excellence, establishedin 2010 by Carleton University in Ottawa, is aninnovative, multi-disciplinary institution, that is

collaborating with Canadian and Indian universities innumerous fields.

Dr Kim Matheson, vice president (research and Inter-national), Carlton University says scholars are identify-ing global problems and the objective of the center is tobring together people from all sorts of disciplines toaddress these.

The centre was established recently, so it is relatively new.

Yes, it’s relatively new but it doesn’t mean that the workthat’s being done on our campus is new. There are peoplehere who have been quite passionate and integrated withcollaborators and partners in India long before the centercame into being.

So the idea of the centre isn’t to focus on the work of anyproject or given individual, but to build a broad and cohe-sive foundation at this point, really in many respects, forthe future.

Can you explain to our readers the multi-disciplinarynature of the centre?

It covers subjects from philosophy to engineering to com-puter science. Our scholars are identifying the big prob-lems of today and the centre is bringing together peoplefrom all sorts of disciplines to address those problems.

To do this, we create a foundation by identifying people inthe university who want to partner and work with India.

We also try to connect with other universities acrossCanada, including Ryerson, the University of Ottawa,Simon Fraser University in British Columbia etc.

We’ve run some sessions with the University of Guelph toidentify some common strengths and interests that wemight be able to bring to address issues like improved foodsecurity in India.

What we’re doing right now is to build up those relation-ships — and relevant institutions, nationally and bi-nation-ally — so that we can start to identify opportunities to worktogether to address some of the big problems.

The centre is multidisciplinary by intention. There’s noproblem today that you can resolve within one discipline.

We bring together people with the technology and peoplein business —who understand how to build a global com-pany — and so on to work together, to create innovationsthat are usable in Canada and India.

We’ve got a lot of people, involved in global and econom-ic development, who understand how to work in thatframework.

But it’s a huge challenge. My office has spent a lot of timebringing people together people on various kinds of issues,including creating student programs. The faculty are thehardest ones to do this because they are so busy, andbecause they are funded and rewarded for their discipli-nary work.

But when they come together and have a common goal todo something, they start talking to each other and start lis-tening and respecting one another.

To create such an ambitious centre, you need to havestrong financial support.

We are trying to identify funding opportunities that allowus to work together and to address some of these big issues.

My starting point is research but at the foundation of thatare people, researchers. And those affected by research andour partners and students. The students are passionateabout building a better world. They are at a stage of lifewhere they have the energy and flexibility to follow theirvision doing the right thing.

We are active in raising funds for students to go fromhere to India and also to bring them here.

So we’ve been taking advantage of things like theCommonwealth scholarships to bring students from India.

We’re trying to get it going both ways by raising funds tosend our students to India. Otherwise, it’s still either usgoing there to help India or the students coming here andwe don’t really understand what the issues are. So we needa generation that understands how to interact.

How successful have you been in implementing thesenew ideas?

We’ve been meeting people from universities in India.We’ve had a science advisor come over here and spend sev-eral months with us, identifying the opportunities for col-laborations in India, particularly in relation to entrepre-neurship and building a bilateral entrepreneurial culture.

Given the kind of university Carleton is, we need to berealistic in terms of the places where we can make animpact.

It’s not going to find a cure for malaria. It’s going to bemore in terms of engagement between institutions to cre-ate and adapt innovations that are developed in partner-ship and implemented by people in the communities.

And so, we’ve been bringing people here to advise us onwhat resources there are (in India), which institutionswould be good for us to partner with so that when our fac-ulty and administrative people go to India, they can makethe right connections and start to build those relationships.

We’re creating the foundation to be able to make a differ-ence but it’s not just about people at Carleton. It’s aboutbringing together people so that when we want to identifythe big challenges that face Canada and India, nody’s iso-lated and we have the right people at the table from acrossthe country and from India.

How did the idea of the centre start?The idea of Canada-India Center started with our

researchers on campus who were pushing our universitypresident (Roseann O’ Reilly Runte) to go to India to con-solidate and strengthen relationships and opportunities.And she realized how much was happening at Carleton.

So we started bringing people together to advise her todetermine where the momentum existed and where to puther time and efforts when she went to India.

At the same time there’s a business community that isvery passionate to build Canada-India relationship.Carleton has a reputation for its work in trade policy andregulatory issues. We have the Norman Paterson School ofInternational Affairs, which is one of the best in Canada.

They too have been strong contributors at the core of ourcreation of the center. There was a passion and energy inthe university and out of the university, in the Indo-Canadian community.

What is unique about this centre?The focus of our centre is going to be driven by what

scholars are really interested in. We have people here likeDr Anil Maheshwari in the department of computer sci-ence. He’s excellent in his field and so students are going tolearn a lot from him.

We have a lot going on in terms of activities that bringtogether Canadian and Indian students.

Have you traveled to India to promote the centre? I went to India for the first time last year to attend the

India Education Innovation Summit. My counterparts atRyerson University and Simon Fraser University were alsopresent there.

We also jointly met key partners in India like representa-tives from the Indian ministry of agriculture and theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research. We tried toconvey that Canadian universities can work together.

One of the frustrations that Indian Institutions expressedwas that once these visiting delegations returned toCanada, they never heard from them again.

The problem here is of funding. We have the same prob-lem in China and Europe too. The research supported byparticular funding mechanisms is not necessarily synchro-nized. It’s difficult to do joint projects if we don’t have thefunds. So there are structural pieces that sometimes makeit very difficult to collaborate.

IT WILL FOCUS ON TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT BETWEENINSTITUTIONS TO CREATE AND ADAPT INNOVATIONS

THAT ARE DEVELOPED IN PARTNERSHIP AND IMPLEMENTED BY PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITIES

THE CENTRE IS MULTIDISCIPLINARY,SINCE THERE’S NO

PROBLEM TODAY THAT YOU CANRESOLVE WITHIN ONE DISCIPLINE

Kim MathesonThe vice president, CarletonUniversity, in conversation with Ajit Jain

JAMES PARK

Canada-IndiaCentre for Excellence

Canada-IndiaCentre for Excellence

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Unveiling Mahatma Gandhi statue at the new River Building on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti (Oct. 2, 2011).

Public Lecture by Dr. Pramod Deo, Chairperson, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (May 22, 2012)

Mrs. Narinder Chauhan, Acting High Commissioner of India in Ottawa (May 2012).

Carleton architecture students Tyler Fissel and Marnie O’Farrell during a field trip to Guhagar, Maharashtra (Jan. 2012) while in an exchange program in Pune.

(From left to right): Carleton President Roseann O’Reilly Runte and Chief Development Officer Paul Chesser present Mrs. Ruth Harper and Mr. Sudhir Handa with Carleton’s Leadership in Philanthropy Award at the 2012 Summer Social (June 10, 2012)

H.E. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam delivering the inaugural Dhahan Lecture (Oct. 3, 2012)

Vishnu Som – Senior Anchor at New Delhi Television (NDTV), India’s first and largest 24 hour news network, Carleton Graduate, Double Honours in History and Political Science (1991 to ‘94), Masters in Communication (1995-’96)

“An exceptional research environment, Carleton University provided me the critical skills I needed to make the transition from a student to a media professional. I also gained leadership skills as a member of Residence Life Staff and as a Teaching Assistant. Located in Canada’s national capital region, Carleton exemplifies the spirit of multiculturalism that defines modern Canada. Besides anything else, Ottawa is a beautiful city - a wonderful place to live in.”

CANADA-INDIA CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCEAT CARLETON UNIVERSITY IN OTTAWA

VISHNU SOMTALKS ABOUT

CARLETON UNIVERSITY

The Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa and the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, in collaboration with sponsoring organizations, present the 2013 National Capital India Forum on February 21, 2013.

This half-day event involving senior business and government leaders from Canada and India is designed to help prepare Canadian companies to engage in this dynamic and globally strategic market.

2013 National Capital India Forum

“ADAPTING YOUR BUSINESS TO INDIA”

Mark your calendar for February 21

Date: Thursday, February 21, 201312:00 noon to 6:30 p.m.

Location: Telfer School of ManagementUniversity of Ottawa, Desmarais Building

For full event details and ticket information contact: india@carleton.ca

Membership with the Canada-India Centre

for Excellence

Categories of Annual Membership* and Benefits:• Student Members: no cost

Access to Resource Centre and Library on request

• Members: $100Advance invitation (save the date) to Centre’s eventsQuarterly newsletter subscriptionAccess to Resource Centre and Library on request

• Supporting Members: $250Priority seating at eventsAdvance invitation to Centre’s eventsQuarterly newsletter subscriptionAccess to Resource Centre and Library on request

• Sustaining Members: $500Priority seating at eventsAdvance invitation to Centre’s eventsQuarterly newsletter subscriptionInvitation to roundtables which may not be open to the publicAccess to Resource Centre and Library on request

• Gandhi Society Members: $1,000 and higherPriority seating at eventsOpportunity to meet with visiting speakers and guests when possibleAdvance invitation to Centre’s eventsQuarterly newsletter subscriptionListed in newsletter by name, if desiredInvitation to roundtables which may not be open to the publicAccess to Resource Centre and Library on request

You are invited to join the Centre, helping to support its work while benefitting from networking opportunities.

For 2013 Annual Membership, dues must be received by January 15, 2013.

Payable by cheque to Canada-India Centre for Excellence at Carleton University, Room 1401R-F, River Building, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

Or online: carleton.ca/giving/give/.

* All membership gifts are receiptable. Founding Members and Major Donors are automatically members and exempt from dues.