A twelve member delegation from Hunan Xiangtan University and Hunan Xiangtan Daonan Academy, located in the Hunan District in China, visited the Kochi and Amritapuri campuses of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, on December 17-18, 2017. During the visit, official talks on signing a Memorandum of Understanding were held.
Over the 2 day visit, there were focused discussions on 35 international programs in the areas of Social Science, Law, Economics (Equity, Rural, and Consumer Economics), and Public Administration. There was also a great deal of interest in topics such as Social Administration, Social Security, Women’s Education, and Disaster Relief.
The delegation members spoke to the Deans and Department Heads of Amrita, from both campuses, on the possibility of establishing educational and research collaborations. The delegates were very impressed with Amrita’s landslide research using wireless technology at the Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (AmritaWNA). There was also great interest in the institution’s Live-in-Labs® program.
Several members of the delegation met Sri Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) – Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, in 2012 at the Asia Pacific Conference and were eager to establish collaborations with Amrita at that time. In addition to talks of collaborations in the traditional academic disciplines, delegation members were deeply interested in having a seven-day beach meditation retreat and consciousness study with workshops and publications as part of their Metaphysical Studies program. Several delegation members had fruitful philosophical discussions with Amrita faculty members about masters such as Tagore/Gandhi and found similarities with Chinese leaders like Great Master Nan and their philosophies. Delegates also drew interesting parallels between Indian and Chinese culture – brahman/oneness, unity of heaven and the individual, the one family concept/harmony, and seva/selfless service for humanity.
At the Kochi campus, the delegates toured Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and also visited the Amrita Center for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine. At the Amritapuri campus, the delegates witnessed the presentation of Live-in-Labs®projects, by Mr. Renjith Mohan, Coordinator, Live-in-Labs®, and discussed on the possible collaborations with the HoD’s, researchers and the ACIP (Amrita Center for International Programs) Executive. Later, the delegates toured several Research Centers of Amrita- AmritaCREATE, AmritaWNA, AMMACHI Labs, and Biotechnology. They also visited the Ashram for beach meditation and Amma’s Darshan.
The participants from Hunan Xiangtan University included: Prof. Liao Yongan, Vice President; Prof. Wang Xiezhou, Director, Office of Social Science; Prof. Shu Qizhi, Academic Dean, School of International Exchange; Prof. Sheng Mingke Dean, School of Public Administration and Prof. Li Yiyu from the School of Public Administration. Ms. Liu Mei-Hsiu, Assistant Chancellor; Dr. Huang Kao-Cheng, Vice President; Dr. Wei Sheng,Vice President; Prof. Deng Guo Hua, Prof. Liu Fang, Mr. Xue Liang, Secretary General and Mr. Wang Lu Ming, were the participants from Hunan Xiangtan Daonan Academy.
Dr. Prem Kumar Nair, Medical Director, School of Medicine, Kochi; Dr. Shantikumar Nair, Dean of Research and Director, Nanosciences, Center for Nanosciences, Kochi; Ms. Karen Sneha Moawad, Program Manager, North America, Center for International Programs; Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh, Dean, Amrita Center for International Programs and Director, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (AmritaWNA); Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan, Dean, PG Programs and Director of the Center for Cyber Security Systems and Networks; Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar, Associate Dean, School of Engineering, Amritapuri; Dr. Bipin Nair, Dean, School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri; Dr. V. S. Somanath, Dean, Amrita School of Business, Amritapuri; Dr. Raghu Raman, Chairperson, Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore; Dr. Ramanathan P. V., Chairperson, English, School of Arts and Sciences, Amritapuri; Dr. Mangalam Ramanathan, Chairperson, Chemistry, School of Arts and Sciences, Amritapuri; Dr. Purushothaman A., Vice Chairperson, Electronics and Communication, School of Engineering, Amritapuri; Dr. Anand S., Assistant Professor, Philosophy Arts and Culture, Spiritual Studies, Amritapuri and Mr. Akshay Nagarajan, AMMACHI Labs, participated in the event.
