The engineering school created within the Anant National University in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) aims to train professionals capable of tackling the climate emergency. This completely new course in South Asia has been designed by Miniya Chatterji, one of the most respected voices on sustainable development in India.
“In the course of my work, I have been noticing a tremendous lack of knowledge and skills in professions related to climate change. The need to create dedicated courses was urgent, but so far there was no undergraduate engineering degree in India on these issues", says Miniya Chatterji, the woman behind the idea of the first Climate School in India. The programme will open its doors in August 2022 in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), within the Anant National University, one of those renowned private universities that have appeared in recent years in India.
The support of professors from MIT and Indian IITs
Miniya Chatterji, a graduate from Sciences Po in France (with a Masters and a PhD obtained in 2009), founded her own company Sustain Labs Paris in 2017, after leading the sustainability strategy of the Indian group Jindal Steel and Power. In a decade, she has become one of the most important Indian voices in India on sustainable development issues. Her idea was immediately supported by the industrialist Ajay Piramal, the main funder of Anant National University, where Miniya Chatterji already had founded and runs a Fellowship on Climate Action. She also surrounded herself with professors from MIT in Boston and prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology to design the curriculum.
Sixty places are open in this first promotion of B. Tech in climate Technologies. During semesters 1 to 6, students will be trained in 8 main streams by teachers who are themselves engineers in the field of climate - climate simulation, engineering mathematics, environmental engineering, climate finance, climate chemistry, energy and technologies, design thinking and behavioral science, technologies and society. In parallel, they will work on real projects submitted by companies to the school's "Climate Lab".
3 million job creations in India by 2030
The last two semesters will be devoted to making students ready for the job market, with the choice between 3 specializations (Climate and business, Climate laws and public policies, Climate technologies) in semester 7, followed by a compulsory internship of at least 16 weeks in semester 8. Miniya Chatterji is certain that the 60 students will find jobs after their studies, with attractive remuneration. She remarks: "I am always asked to help recruit skilled professionals, but they're not enough on the market". Masters and PhD programmes should also follow within a few years.
The sector is indeed extremely dynamic, and the needs are humongous. The IFC, the arm of the World Bank specializing in funding the private sector in developing countries, projects that climate resilient infrastructure will generate $2.3 trillion by 2030 in India and Bangladesh alone. 3 million job creations should result from this over the same period. Currently, the specialized programs on Climate in India can be counted on the fingers of the hand at the Master's or doctorate level and are very far from compensating for the lack of trained professionals.
The new ESG regulation in India
A new Indian regulation that came into force in 2021 underscored the urgency. From this year, the 1000 largest Indian companies listed on the stock exchange must indeed publish their environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in an annual report called “Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report”. The practices of these companies will then become available for consultation by banks, investors, shareholders, and by public authorities. Miniya Chatterji concludes: "It's a huge change, similar to financial accountability 40 years ago".
Main features:
University: Anant National University
City: Ahmedabad (Gujarat)
Program name: B Tech specializing in Climate Technologies
Duration: 4 years
3 specializations: Business | Public Policies | Technology
Annual tuition fees: 2.9 lakh rupees (approximately €3,400) for Indian students and 8.65 lakhs rupees (approx €10,200) for foreign students.
Accommodation and meals: 2.55 lakhs rupees (approx €3,000 euros) per year
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