"India is always more than you think" - Dr. Jürgen Nützel often quotes this sentence when talking about his new business relationships in the South Asian continent. The Managing Director of the IT company 4FriendsOnly.com Internet Technologies AG and private lecturer at TU Ilmenau opened a company branch in the university and industrial city of Vadodara, the third largest city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, in 2023. His initial expectation of developing software there more cheaply than in Germany has been far exceeded. He was able to network with a large Belgian software company on site and thus establish a new line of business.
Just like the Ilmenau IT company, more and more Thuringian entrepreneurs are discovering India as a partner. They want to open up new sales markets for export, but also see great potential in production and the recruitment of skilled workers, explains Anita Spiegler,
German-Indian relations have been successfully cultivated at TU Ilmenau for many years. As the only technical university in Thuringia, it not only has a high proportion of Indian students, but also maintains university partnerships with several Indian Institutes of Technologies - engineering and technology-oriented university educational institutions in India.
With the aim of supporting Thuringian companies in setting up business in India and further intensifying economic and scientific exchange, LEG and TU Ilmenau organized an India Day Thuringia at TU Ilmenau for the first time. Participants from industry, science and politics spent a day learning about the opportunities and challenges in India - from successful market entry and the local education system to intercultural understanding in business practice. In the "Indian Business Idol" competition, Indian students presented innovative ideas for promoting business relations between Thuringian companies and India.
The Indian Consul General, B. S. Mubarak, promoted his country as a partner in areas such as energy, business, technology and innovation as well as labor mobility. According to B. S. Mubarak, around 1.5 million engineers in India graduate every year and could help to close the gap in the German labor market caused by demographic change.
In the subsequent discussion with the Vice President for International Affairs and Transfer, Prof. Jens Müller, concrete possibilities and opportunities for cooperation and student recruitment were discussed. The language barrier was also mentioned as a major obstacle to successful integration: "Although English is already common and established in many companies, there is also a life outside of work," explained Jens Müller. "German language skills form the basis for integration into the community."
The Consul General drew attention to an initiative by Indian universities that specifically offer in-depth German training alongside specialist studies in order to give students in their 4th year the opportunity to complete their studies at a German university.
PD Dr. Sukhdeep Singh is also in favour of learning German before studying in Germany. He moved to Ilmenau from the Indian metropolis of Amritsar in 2008 and heads the Research Group Bioorganic Chemistry of Bioactive Surfaces at the TU Ilmenau. With his intercultural understanding of both cultures, he is involved in LEG’s German Indian Round Table, from which the idea for India Day at TU Ilmenau emerged, and is available to students, scientists and the Thuringian economy as a contact person. Many students and scientists such as PD Dr. Sukhdeep Singh study, teach and research at TU Ilmenau - and are therefore among the highly qualified minds who can help Thuringia move forward, says the scientist:
With its cutting-edge research, TU Ilmenau is an international beacon that attracts qualified people from all’over the world. I see the university as a mediator between science and business to inspire these people for Thuringian companies.
At the end of the day, students organized the Diwali festival, the Indian festival of lights, which was opened by B. S. Mubarak, with the support of KuKo e.V. and the International Office of TU Ilmenau. Together with the guests, they celebrated in the Audimax of the TU Ilmenau, the university’s largest lecture hall, with music, dancing and traditional food.
