Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday called for India's increased partnership in the international academic spectrum, saying that India would play a crucial role in global human resource in future. 

Sibal said this on the sidelines of an international educational seminar, which was also attended by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Leszek Borysiewicz. "Educational institutions by nature have to collaborate. Our challenge is how to ensure that and that is really why we are getting together and what this summit is all about," said Sibal.

He further said that India would greatly contribute to the world's human resource as it had the numbers on its side. "India is going to play a very significant role in the years to come because the human resource is here, I mean, if you have 400 million people under the age of 14, you can imagine when they grow up, you have a workforce that is not matched anywhere in the world so what we need to do is to empower them," said Sibal.

"By 2020, the average age of an Indian would be 29, so if we are able to empower our children and we give them quality education they will really be providing the solutions for the world, so India has an enormous role to play," he added.

Borysiewicz said global cooperation in education would help in solving international issues and help transcend beyond borders. "I can only echo because what you will see from the universities' perspective, particularly from internationally leading universities, is that internationalizing and engaging with the international agendas are absolutely key. The globe faces huge problems and each of us has to play a part across international boundaries to ensure that this can occur. Therefore I commend the initiatives that are being taken in India to try to make this happen and as a university we are committed to working in partnership with Indian institutions to help tackle some of these challenges," he said.

Borysiewicz is on a 10-day visit to India accompanied by a high-level Cambridge University team in a bid to strengthen educational ties with the country. (ANI)