AMN /Dubai
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that India and the UAE have entered a “new phase” of educational collaboration, marked by the opening of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s Dubai campus and the expanding footprint of Indian universities and schools across the Emirates.
During his Dubai visit, Pradhan pointed out that renowned Indian institutions such as Manipal University, Amity University, BITS Pilani, and IIFT Ghaziabad already operate in the UAE, alongside 109 CBSE-affiliated schools serving the Indian diaspora.
The minister underlined India’s commitment to deepening educational ties, highlighting school-level innovation through the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) launched in 2016. As part of this initiative, the first overseas Atal Incubation Centre was inaugurated this week at the IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi campus, signaling a major extension of India’s innovation ecosystem abroad. Several UAE schools have also voluntarily joined the Atal Tinkering Lab movement, he added.
At IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi, the academic offering has broadened with the launch of a new undergraduate programme in Chemical Engineering, complementing existing courses in Computer Science and Sustainable Energy as well as an M.Tech in Sustainable Energy. The admission of 23 PhD students has now enabled the institute to complete what Pradhan called a “full academic cycle.”
Framing these developments within the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Pradhan said the international expansion of Indian institutions showcases India’s commitment to globalisation in education. “India is a vibrant economy with strong fundamentals, and such partnerships reflect its growing role in shaping global knowledge networks,” he noted.