Collaboration between the U.K. and India was poised for greater growth and India had become a partner of choice, said British Deputy High Commissioner Bharat Joshi here on Saturday.
The collaboration in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics had increased. When he joined the Chennai High Commiserate, the value of collaboration in research was one million British Pounds. Today it stood at 400 mn British Pounds.
Likewise, the number of students admitted last year to various higher education institutions went up 33%. This year, the number of applications was up by 85%, he said at the Chamber Day 2019, an annual event of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore.
South India and Tamil Nadu found an important place in the collaboration and he was happy to learn that institutions from Coimbatore had also partnered with institutions in the U.K.
He earlier presented awards to members of The Helpers Association, an NGO, government school teacher R. Sathy, who recently won a national award, and theatre artiste K.S. Krishnan. Children of Ms. Sathy received the award on her behalf.
The Chamber had honoured them as unsung heroes and gave away a citation and cash awards to each of the recipients.
Ayyappan, of the association, said the award would go a long way in motivating others to take up social service. While many took up social service seeing the association’s initiative, they couldn’t succeed. But, the association succeeded because of team work.
Mr. Krishnan said he was able to continue in theatre for five decades because of the support of audience and patrons. He added that he felt proud to get the recognition in Coimbatore, his home turf. Chamber president V. Lakshminarayanasamy welcomed the gathering.