New Delhi, Aug 26 (INB) The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and Australia’s Deakin University are exploring the establishment of a ‘Centre for Resilience Leadership’ aimed at strengthening institutional capacity and developing global leadership in disaster resilience, the premier institute said on Wednesday. The discussions were held by the Institute of Crisis, Risk and Resilience Studies (ICARS), IIT Roorkee (Greater Noida centre), jointly with Deakin University, with IIT Roorkee Director Dr K K Pant and Prof Karun Rawat, Dean, International Relations, among those who took part in the deliberations, IIT Roorkee said in a LinkedIn post. The meeting also brought together Prof Anil Kumar Gupta, Professor, WRDM and Principal Investigator, ICARS, IIT Roorkee, and Richa Shrivastava, Senior Scientist, ICARS, from the Greater Noida campus, along with Priyanka Singh, Executive Director-South Asia, Gayathri Vedanarayanan and Dr Aditi Singh from Deakin University. The proposed initiative seeks to combine Deakin University’s global expertise with India’s extensive experience in disaster risk management to strengthen institutional capabilities, promote innovation and support transformative action for a safer and more resilient future, the institute said. The proposed Centre is expected to provide a platform for collaboration in areas related to disaster resilience, leadership development, capacity building and research, according to details shared by IIT Roorkee. A related post by a Deakin University representative also said the proposed Centre could bring together capacity building, leadership development, joint research, PhD pathways and policy engagement. The initiative marks another step towards strengthening India-Australia academic cooperation in disaster risk reduction and resilience, with the two institutions seeking to leverage their respective expertise for developing future-ready resilience leaders.
