National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, have come together to guide undergraduates for the global economy.

With this target in view, two heads of the institutions Prof Shin Choon Fong, president of NUS, and Prof S G Dhande, director of IIT-Kanpur signed an MoU.

The two entities propose to offer a joint PhD degree programme, where the students of one will go to the other and interact and imbibe each other's culture.

This is not going to be just an arrangement where a few departments interact with each other. It is far more. From the discussions that took place at the signing ceremony, it became clear that the intention is to produce first-rate graduates, who are well integrated with each other and will be at the helm of the global economy in the 21st century.

The intention is to integrate the two institutions. "The synergy that is going to be achieved by the joint initiatives between these two giants in the global academic scenario should give a competitive advantage to both the institutes in the international arena," the press note said.

Another goal is to create regional clusters of academic research groups and cater to the needs of the institutes as well the individuals in offering excellent research platforms duly customising the needs of the regional groups across the globe.

This combination will help address the needs of both the state-owned and private-owned research institutes.

When asked that this could lead to further brain drain to the West as has been happening for the last 40 years, Fong said that this is going to be an Asian century and the rise of Indian and China prove that.

The rate of growth will be higher over here and hence there is no danger that these students will go away. Instead they are likely to find commensurate jobs within India itself. Thus, there is nothing to fear from this process, he added.