The keynote speech was given by Prof. Gautam BISWAS, Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) and former President of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), with a presentation titled “The India-Japan Collaboration”. In the speech, he shared his rich experience of joint research with universities in Japan and prospects about Japan-India exchange based on his experience.

He introduced that Japan and India have a long history of cultural and scientific exchange which started before the birth of Christ with the introduction of Buddhism and manufacturing method of iron. He commented that many historical people also interacted between Japan and India in the modern period.

He also mentioned that he had visited Japan as an invited fellow of JSPS in 1994 for the first time and that his Japanese supervisor had then visited India which led to the start of joint research between Japanese and Indian universities. He also mentioned that joint research in various fields have been carried out to date.

He pointed out that Japan and India should strengthen cooperation in various fields such as space science, deep-sea exploration, health care, traffic and education and that the mutual understanding between two countries connected deeply through its culture will act as its foundation. At the end of his presentation, he referred to the words of OKAKURA Tenshin, a Japanese historic artist, “Asia is one”.