Victoria partners with India for ICT
The Victorian government's super trade mission to India has resulted in a number of Australian-Indian partnerships, including the establishment of a research centre for software engineering.
The trade mission involved over 200 Victorian organisations that travelled to India this month with the aim to strengthen investment relationships, create new opportunities for businesses and provide more jobs for Victorians.
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu today announced that as a result of the super trade mission, the state will establish a new Australia-India Research Centre for Automation Software Engineering at RMIT University. The centre is a result of a new partnership between RMIT, ABB Australia, ABB Corporate Research Centre and Global Industries and Services in India.
Additional research will also be undertaken in ABB's Notting Hill facilities, to provide up to 300 new software-engineering jobs.
"This new facility will become Australia's centre of excellence in automation and robotics," Baillieu said.
"There is great potential here in bringing together academia and researchers to develop solutions that tackle issues core to industry, such as improving energy efficiency, raising productivity and addressing climate change."
Baillieu also announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between La Trobe University and Indian ICT company HCL Technologies. The agreement will result in the two organisations collaborating on research, development and commercialisation activities.
These activities will focus on intelligent transport systems that use ICT, such as traffic management, infrastructure management, infrastructure security, enhanced driver safety and logistics support for transport operations.
The two organisations expect to improve traffic flow for commuters, transport information for city planners, productivity of businesses, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
Recent graduates from La Trobe University will have the opportunity to work for HCL, and, after necessary training, be allocated to projects in Victoria or those at HCL's other global locations.
Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles has also signed an MOU with La Trobe University to jointly research applications for energy-efficiency technologies for buildings.
While the Indian company develops electric vehicles, the MOU will provide the university with access to its newly built automotive assembly plant in Bengaluru, India.
The plant already uses energy-recovery systems and solar power to minimise its energy footprint in assembling cars, and La Trobe University will use it as a test bed for conducting research in energy-management systems.
This research would include improving energy efficiency for electric vehicles, but also examining vehicle-to-grid technology, which would further allow electric vehicles to feed power back in to buildings.