Around sixty Indian engineers already work on the research park. In order to improve their welcome and to promote a Franco-Indian cooperation, a club will be launched on Friday April 20th in Sophia.
A Franco-Indian club in Sophia Antipolis : that is what the Sophia Antipolis Foundation will launch on Friday April 20th, 08.00 pm in the Place Sophie Laffitte premises. Being close to India has become a governmental matter since there is a lack of computer scientists. The Franco-Indian forum, which has been created after President Chirac visited India, has allowed such a collaboration.
The Sophia Antipolis Foundation and Senator Pierre Laffitte, had already played a role. They particularly took an active part in preparing a meeting between French and Indian start-ups at the Senate in January 2001. An operation which experienced a great success and which was piloted, as far as Indian people are concerned, by the NASSCOM, the association of software industrialists in India. The Franco-Indian club in Sophia has been created in that sense.
The aim of this association is to gather Indian people who are already present on the research park together. So, Amadeus, has recruited around forty Indian computer scientists, while about fifteen Indian searchers work at the INRIA. As well, other companies of the site are starting recruiting Indian people. The other goals of the club are to improve welcome and training in French language, promotion of Indian days (gastronomy, cinema, dances, TV reports, etc.) and to set up a Franco-Indian cooperation on the economic, scientific and cultural point of view.