Over 100 business, academic and government leaders from Australia and India converged in Delhi this month for the Australia India Leadership Dialogue.
Education leaders from five Australian universities and key Indian universities joined a diverse group of stakeholders to address challenges in the bilateral relationship and explore areas for cooperation.
Emerging technology was at the heart of the agenda, including new opportunities in the clean technology sector and harnessing India's technology talent and skills.
The event was hosted and co-chaired by the Australia India Institute’s CEO, former Senator the Hon. Lisa Singh, and co-chaired by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Atlassian, principal corporate partner of the Dialogue. Mike Cannon-Brookes said the relationship between India and Australia was significant for tech talent.
“India’s tech talent is world-class, and we want to hire the smartest technical minds across the country. Since opening locally in 2018, India has become home to our fastest growing R&D site globally, and our doors are now open to talent across all of India.
Our engineers are working on hard problems, and significant products for our overall strategy – it’s a true R&D hub for us,” he said.
In an opinion piece, delegate Vicki Thomson, Chief Executive of Group of Eight (Go8) – Australia's leading research and teaching universities, highlighted the opportunities to boost research partnerships between the two countries.
"Australia and India have had strong research and education relationships for decades. We face similar environmental and sustainability challenges. Australia is also now home to a significant and growing Indian diaspora," she said.
"Herein lies the opportunity. There is now a sense of urgency from both sides to ramp up these partnerships and a strong sense that they must be underpinned by quality."
Image: Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell, Australia India Institute CEO Lisa Singh and Atlassian Co-CEO and Co-Founder Mike Cannon-Brookes at the Australia India Leadership Dialogue in Delhi.