Media Release
Karkala, Oct 2: Nitte-Kobayashi Centre of Excellence, a joint initiative of NITTE Group and Kobayashi Create, Japan, was inaugurated on Friday at NITTE in virtual mode.
N Vinaya Hegde, president, NITTE Education Trust, inaugurated the centre and thanked Kobayashi Create for reposing confidence in the researchers and students of NITTE. In his inaugural address, he said that any collaboration between Japanese industry and Indian universities would be mutually beneficial as these two countries can contribute to the development of each other in the changing geopolitical environment today. He said that NITTE could develop the right talent that Japanese companies are looking for, by bringing necessary changes in the curriculum and training methodologies. He assured Kobayashi that NITTE would provide all the support needed for this centre as both NITTE and Kobayashi Create would stand to gain from this association.
Expressing his happiness about the CoE, Tomonari Kobayashi said that this is one of its kind of centres being established by Kobayashi Create in India. He felt that through this Centre, the company intends to train and recruit brilliant engineers and MBAs from NITTE to support the expansion plans of Kobayashi Create. Kobayashi san is looking forward to the success of this CoE and intends to recruit more people from NITTE University in the coming years.
In his opening remarks, Dr M S Moodithaya, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university, said that the Centre of Excellence (CoE) would initially set up at Justice K S Hegde Institute of Management and later shift to an independent facility. As the first step in this partnership, Kobayashi, with NITTE’s help, would undertake joint research to understand Indian markets for Kobayashi products, along with providing internship opportunities and product-related research. Pro-chancellors of NITTE University, Dr Shantharama Shetty and Vishal Hegde, vice-chancellor Dr Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, director (Finance & Planning) Rajendra M, registrar Dr Alka Kulkarni, principal of NMAMIT, Dr Niranjan Chiplunkar, Dr Parameswaran, Dr Sudhir and other officials of NITTE Group and Kobayashi Create were present. The Kobayashi Create was represented by Koji Suzuki-san- general manager, Kato-san-manager, Akita-san, Hidakaj-san, Nakazawah-san and other officials. Harikrishna Bhat, director of International Collaborations (Asia-Pacific Region)-NITTTE Group, facilitated the meeting.
Professor Sankaran, director of JKSHIM, proposed the vote of thanks.