Richard R Verma says the world’s oldest and largest democracies, despite having different histories and traditions, can forge a grand alliance for global prosperity
NOVEMBER 04, 2015: “Collaboration between Indian and American minds continues to save and change lives today”, stated US Ambassador Richard R Verma while delivering a special lecture on ‘The US and India: A Fellowship of Minds in Service to Humanity’ at IIM Bangalore on Wednesday, November 4, 2015. He went on to cite many such examples. Design engineers from Silicon Valley joining hands with the famous ‘Jaipur Foot’ organization to develop an improved artificial knee for amputees was one of them.
Ambassador Verma began his lecture with a brief background about his family and roots, and how it was to grow up in the United States with two Indian school teachers as parents, lacing his narrative with humour and striking an immediate connect with the audience.
Talking about the coming together of the people of the United States and India, Ambassador Verma said that in 2009 the governments of the two countries set up the US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund. Seeded with a 640 million rupee endowment at the US Embassy, the fund partners with India’s Department of Science and Technology to issue yearly calls for proposals for up to 2.5 crore rupees each. During the recently concluded Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in Washington DC, the two governments agreed that in 2016 a private sector-led Innovation Forum be launched to ignite and scale innovation and encourage entrepreneurship.
Pointing out the virtues of ‘unity in diversity’, he said that different historical and cultural backgrounds of the two countries have helped them strengthen, rather than detract, from their ability to forge new ideas together. Indian traditional medicine is generating immense interest in the United States. Rather than dismissing Indian traditions as incompatible with western medicine, American scientists and pharmaceutical companies are working with Indian partners and the governments are discussing ways to partner Indian traditional medicine with US expertise in research and drug development to improve the health of the people of the two countries and the world.
In a reference to the wave of innovation and entrepreneurship sweeping the world, the Ambassador had a special word of appreciation for the garden city. “It’s fitting that I’m speaking about innovation today in Bengaluru, a city that has long been at the forefront of discovery in India. In 1905 Bangalore became the first city in Asia with electrical power and I am gratified to know that the United States and India have been working together on clean energy since the turn of the last century when General Electric helped to install Asia's first hydroelectric power station here.”
He also mentioned a few visionaries from Bengaluru who were instrumental in bringing the people of the two nations closer together, creating thousands of Indian and American jobs in the process, such as N.R. Narayanamurthy, Sabeer Bhatia and Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
While talking about the new generation of Indian minds advancing courageous new ideas, Ambassador Verma spoke about a group of middle school girls who formed one of two teams from India selected to attend the Technovation global technology entrepreneurship forum for girls in San Francisco. The girls took home the top prize in the middle school division, and a $10,000 seed funding prize, for an app that created online marketplace to solve waste management challenges. The winners, with whom the Ambassador had earlier had a private session, were invited to the stage amidst cheer and applause.
Tackling challenges, such as that of climate change, should be one of the areas that the two countries could work together in the future. “The United States and India could together make no greater gift to humanity than propelling a clean energy revolution that delivers critical economic and environmental benefits to the people of India, the United States and the world”, he said. Academic ties between the two countries should also be strengthened for collaboration to reach its full potential and for achieving limitless global peace and prosperity.
The session drew to a close with a brief interactive session between the speaker and the audience.
Richard R Verma says the world’s oldest and largest democracies, despite having different histories and traditions, can forge a grand alliance for global prosperity
NOVEMBER 04, 2015: “Collaboration between Indian and American minds continues to save and change lives today”, stated US Ambassador Richard R Verma while delivering a special lecture on ‘The US and India: A Fellowship of Minds in Service to Humanity’ at IIM Bangalore on Wednesday, November 4, 2015. He went on to cite many such examples. Design engineers from Silicon Valley joining hands with the famous ‘Jaipur Foot’ organization to develop an improved artificial knee for amputees was one of them.
Ambassador Verma began his lecture with a brief background about his family and roots, and how it was to grow up in the United States with two Indian school teachers as parents, lacing his narrative with humour and striking an immediate connect with the audience.
Talking about the coming together of the people of the United States and India, Ambassador Verma said that in 2009 the governments of the two countries set up the US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund. Seeded with a 640 million rupee endowment at the US Embassy, the fund partners with India’s Department of Science and Technology to issue yearly calls for proposals for up to 2.5 crore rupees each. During the recently concluded Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in Washington DC, the two governments agreed that in 2016 a private sector-led Innovation Forum be launched to ignite and scale innovation and encourage entrepreneurship.
Pointing out the virtues of ‘unity in diversity’, he said that different historical and cultural backgrounds of the two countries have helped them strengthen, rather than detract, from their ability to forge new ideas together. Indian traditional medicine is generating immense interest in the United States. Rather than dismissing Indian traditions as incompatible with western medicine, American scientists and pharmaceutical companies are working with Indian partners and the governments are discussing ways to partner Indian traditional medicine with US expertise in research and drug development to improve the health of the people of the two countries and the world.
In a reference to the wave of innovation and entrepreneurship sweeping the world, the Ambassador had a special word of appreciation for the garden city. “It’s fitting that I’m speaking about innovation today in Bengaluru, a city that has long been at the forefront of discovery in India. In 1905 Bangalore became the first city in Asia with electrical power and I am gratified to know that the United States and India have been working together on clean energy since the turn of the last century when General Electric helped to install Asia's first hydroelectric power station here.”
He also mentioned a few visionaries from Bengaluru who were instrumental in bringing the people of the two nations closer together, creating thousands of Indian and American jobs in the process, such as N.R. Narayanamurthy, Sabeer Bhatia and Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
While talking about the new generation of Indian minds advancing courageous new ideas, Ambassador Verma spoke about a group of middle school girls who formed one of two teams from India selected to attend the Technovation global technology entrepreneurship forum for girls in San Francisco. The girls took home the top prize in the middle school division, and a $10,000 seed funding prize, for an app that created online marketplace to solve waste management challenges. The winners, with whom the Ambassador had earlier had a private session, were invited to the stage amidst cheer and applause.
Tackling challenges, such as that of climate change, should be one of the areas that the two countries could work together in the future. “The United States and India could together make no greater gift to humanity than propelling a clean energy revolution that delivers critical economic and environmental benefits to the people of India, the United States and the world”, he said. Academic ties between the two countries should also be strengthened for collaboration to reach its full potential and for achieving limitless global peace and prosperity.
The session drew to a close with a brief interactive session between the speaker and the audience.