Australia is doubling down on its partnership with India, with Overseas Minister Penny Wong saying 34 initiatives beneath this 12 months’s Maitri Grants program. Spanning every thing from clear power to cinema, these grants goal to provide form and momentum to the rising people-to-people, educational, and business ties between the 2 nations.
Maitri, which implies friendship in Sanskrit, is greater than a symbolic gesture right here. The Centre for Australia-India Relations is placing actual cash behind the thought, together with $850,000 for a brand new India Chair on the Lowy Institute, the biggest particular person allocation. That publish will lead analysis into India’s rising affect throughout the Indo-Pacific, at a time when overseas coverage watchers internationally are recalibrating their understanding of India’s world posture.
Senator Wong stated the grants replicate how “Australia and India’s relationship is nearer and extra essential than ever.” She highlighted rising cooperation throughout defence, commerce, training, and expertise, sectors the place each nations have overlapping pursuits and shared priorities.
Whereas geopolitics could form the background, the initiatives themselves are hands-on. They embrace an exhibition with the Queensland Artwork Gallery showcasing works by Nineteenth-century Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma, whose work helped form fashionable Indian artwork. In Melbourne, Bodhini Labs will run storytelling workshops targeted on diaspora narratives. In Sydney and Delhi, Western Sydney College will carry collectively teachers, coverage consultants, and companies to strengthen agribusiness collaboration.
A few of the initiatives are designed to enchantment emotionally, such because the Fremantle Biennale’s immersive mild present about shared skies over the Indian Ocean, and the ABC’s Gardening Australia India Particular, which is able to discover Indian flora, gardens, and traditions.
Others are geared in direction of financial and strategic outcomes. Deakin College will concentrate on investment-readiness in robotics, AI, and well being, whereas Victoria College is main AI-focused workshops on water administration. Asialink Enterprise is designing sensible playbooks for Australian firms working in cleantech and agtech partnerships with India.
The complete record of recipients covers nearly each nook of the nation:
Queensland Artwork Gallery will lead a significant exhibition and analysis alternate.
Western Sydney College is coordinating agribusiness coverage dialogue.
Co Curious and Bodhini Labs are investing in display expertise throughout the diaspora.
The College of Melbourne and Victoria College are spearheading digital transformation analysis.
The Australia India Youth Dialogue will obtain multi-year help.
The Excessive Flyers podcast will profile rising Indian-Australian leaders.
ABC will produce a devoted India-themed episode of Gardening Australia.
Fremantle, Darwin, Adelaide, and Melbourne will host artist showcases beneath the Shundori program.
13 scholarships have additionally been awarded to researchers working in areas similar to quantum computing and clear power. Three fellowships will concentrate on biomanufacturing, digital governance, and maritime collaboration.
Entrepreneurship is one other key thread. The College of Adelaide will help SME and start-up labs with companions in India. The Australia India Enterprise and Neighborhood Alliance will run enterprise workshops throughout its immersion week. Ai Group Ltd is organising a sequence of roadmap-themed classes for over 400 Australian companies seeking to interact with India.
Taken collectively, the grants kind an internet of initiatives that join artists, engineers, researchers, coverage makers, and entrepreneurs throughout each nations. Whereas every challenge is modest in scope, all of them construct the form of familiarity that underpins robust partnerships.
Wong’s tone in saying the grants was sensible, not celebratory. The main target is on substance. These initiatives aren’t merely cultural exchanges, they’re constructing blocks in a broader technique to strengthen belief and cooperation.
The message is evident. If the way forward for diplomacy depends on connections between folks, establishments, and concepts, then Australia needs to be a part of that future with India, and it’s keen to speculate to make it occur.
For the total record of the 2024 to 2025 Maitri recipients, go to the Centre for Australia-India Relations web site or the Division of Overseas Affairs and Commerce.
For the total record of Maitri Grants recipients please see under:
Basic: https://www.australiaindiacentre.org.au/GrantRecipients/2025
Students: https://www.australiaindiacentre.org.au/Scholars2025
Fellows: https://australiaindiacentre.org.au/Fellows2025
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