Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, said India and the UAE have entered a new phase of educational cooperation with the inauguration of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s Dubai campus and the growing presence of Indian universities and schools in the Emirates.
Speaking to the media during his visit, Pradhan noted that leading Indian institutions such as Manipal University, Amity University, BITS Pilani, and IIFT Ghaziabad are already established in the UAE, alongside 109 CBSE-affiliated schools that serve the Indian community. “The leadership of Dubai and Abu Dhabi expressed satisfaction with our engagement,” he said, adding that India is committed to further strengthening the partnership in education.
Pradhan underlined India’s focus on school-level innovation through the Atal Innovation Mission, launched in 2016. The initiative has set up 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs across India, with funding in the latest budget for 50,000 more. Over 100 Atal Incubation Centres now support more than 5,000 startups in different districts across the country. He announced that the first overseas Atal Incubation Centre was launched this week at the IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi campus, marking a significant expansion of India’s innovation ecosystem abroad.
The minister said schools in the UAE had voluntarily joined the Atal Tinkering Lab movement, adhering to its protocols. “This is an innovative education architecture we are creating together with the UAE,” he remarked.Pradhan also met principals and management representatives from Indian schools in the UAE on the occasion of National Teachers’ Day. He praised their contribution to education and said Indian educators are being recognized in the UAE not only at the school level but also in universities and research.
Highlighting developments at IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi, Pradhan said the institute has now launched a new undergraduate programme in Chemical Engineering, adding to existing courses in Computer Science and Sustainable Energy, along with an M.Tech in Sustainable Energy. Twenty-three PhD students have also been admitted, completing a ‘full academic cycle’ at the campus.
“The expansion of Indian institutions abroad reflects the vision of the National Education Policy 2020, which calls for internationalisation,” Pradhan said. “India is a vibrant economy with robust fundamentals, and education partnerships such as these demonstrate our growing global role.”