UK interested in tying up with Kerala B-school

Thiruvananthapuram: Britain is keen to forge ties with the city-based Asian School of Business (ASB) for conducting collaborative studies in areas like climate change, agriculture and energy, director of the premier B-school said on Thursday. The proposal for tie-ups between British universities and the ASB came up for discussion during a meeting between British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai Mike Nithavrianakis and ASB director S. Rajeev here on Wednesday.

"The British Deputy High Commissioner visited the ASB campus and talked about introducing us to British universities which have specific competencies relevant for the ongoing 'Emerging Kerala' campaign," Rajeev said in a statement. Britain is also keen to increase the engagement of its universities and companies with India and is looking for collaborations and tie-ups, he added.

"Britain has shown interest in bringing its students to India for working in specific competencies which are in tune with the objectives and initiatives of the 'Emerging Kerala' branding campaign, such as infrastructure, healthcare and ICT," said Rajeev, who is an alumnus of IIT-Madras and the Stanford Business School. During the meeting, the UK official showed interest in agriculture and rural areas and mentioned the research work being carried out by British Universities in the area of climate change and its impact on agriculture.

The ASB has already forged a string of tie-ups with some top-notch universities like the Kansas University in the US and Instytut Organizacji i Zarzadzania W Przemysle (ORGMASZ) of Warsaw (Poland). "We are keen to explore potential tie-ups. A tie-up with some major British university will be a testimony to the high degree of academic excellence of ASB," said G. Vijayaraghavan, member secretary, ASB Board of Governors, and member, Kerala State Planning Board.