By Professor John Webb, Deputy Director Australia India Institute

Much still remains to be done to both widen and deepen the research linkages and engagement between India and Australia says Professor John Webb OAM, Deputy Director of the Australia India Institute at The University of Melbourne

On November 14, 2008, the anniversary of the birth of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first lunar satellite released a 30kg probe which made a hard landing on the lunar surface. The Indian flag is now on the moon. Until its loss of radio contact  the satellite, carrying 11 payloads from six countries, had completed over 3000 orbits and achieved almost all of its scientific objectives. I’m sure most readers are unaware of this achievement.

This lunar mission, named Chandrayaan (moon vehicle) involved an Indian rocket and the assistance of international partners. India is now on its way to being one of the few countries with the capability to explore space.

India’s achievements in such high technology are, not surprisingly, a source of considerable national pride. From an Australian perspective, such achievements constitute both a challenge and an opportunity to reassess our perceptions of India. Sadly, our general understanding of India often lies trapped in stereotypes from earlier years.

Less than 20 years ago, an Australian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, Defence and Trade concluded that Australia’s relationship with India was suffering from ‘shameful’ if ‘benign’ neglect.

At that time, India was yet to open up its economy and start on what has become its recent growth trajectory; it is now engaging broadly and energetically with the global community. While the emergence of the global financial crisis has confounded many financial institutions and economies, the Indian economy continues to outperform almost all others, and is expected to grow by at least five per cent this financial year.

Much has changed since the early 1990s. Australia’s engagement with India is now multifaceted, including connections through political leadership, business, professional organisations, schools, universities, arts and sports. The number of students from India in Australia’s technical institutes and universities is fast approaching 100,000.

India’s demographic destiny is very different from Australia’s, almost the converse. India’s population is large and youthful with more than half of India’s billion plus population under the age of twenty five. The annual increase in India’s population corresponds to approximately the current entire population of Australia.

India’s population is projected to increase by 240 million by 2025, reaching approximately 1.45 billion people. This remorseless demographic change will make India the world’s most populous country by the middle of this century.

India is vigorously planning its transition to a knowledge-based economy, inspired by its successes in the IT and business services sectors and, increasingly, in biotechnology and research-based enterprises

As India’s President Pratibha Patel emphasised: “The core of the Eleventh Plan is knowledge investment, with allocations growing four-fold. India sees knowledge as the strategic resource that will give it leadership.”

In our globalised world, Indian cities such as Bangalore and Pune are increasingly recognised as important nodes in the flow of ideas, innovation and technology. Greatly increased private sector investment has seen the establishment of research and development laboratories in India by many multinational corporations. For example, in 1998, IBM established its India Research Lab as the eighth of its research centres that, together, employ over 3 000 scientists and technologists around the world. The India Research Lab now has world-class facilities in two cities in India, New Delhi and Bangalore.

Both the Australian and Indian Governments are providing strong support for bilateral collaboration in science and technology, an initiative developed while I worked as Counsellor for education and science in the Australian High Commission, New Delhi. In March 2006, in the presence of Prime Minister Singh and Prime Minister Howard, both governments committed significant funding: $20 million from the Australian side over five years with the Indian Government providing matching funds.

This Australia India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) is Australia’s largest bilateral research fund for science and technology co-operation. Melbourne University staff have been particularly successful in securing AISRF grants.

Such achievements are noteworthy but much remains to be done to both widen and deepen the research linkages and engagement between India and Australia.