The Institution of Engineering and Technology ventures into first ever association with Coventry University, one of UK’s most reputed and leading Universities to onboard experts for its newly launched Future of Mobility and Transport (FOMT) panel, which aims to help transform the future of transport and mobility in India.
Professor John Jostins, who set up hydrogen-fuelled car spinout company Microcab and Professor Andrew Parkes, academic director of the university’s Institute for Future Transport and Cities (FTC) will be joining the panel as experts in electromobility and future of cities respectively. As global experts, they will be working closely with the panel to ideate and provide roadmap to the Indian government’s transport policy development, particularly relating to electric mobility.
Professor Parkes said, “This is an excellent opportunity for us to help address some of the biggest challenges ahead for India relating to transport and mobility. Our strengths our extremely well aligned with panel’s vision and mission. There are so many areas where we can make an impact on their work, from the future design of vehicles and infrastructure provision to supporting low carbon vehicles and data management. The Government of India has set ambitious targets for electric mobility; this influential panel will be well placed to help make this happen.”
The IET India Future of Mobility and Transport Panel was recently set up to advise and influence the country’s government as it looks to meet ambitious targets regarding the use of electric vehicles. The panel aims to be a credible and neutral platform to facilitate discussions around the impact of mobility in rural and urban regions in India.
Its role will cover transportation within cities, including tackling traffic decongestion and investigating the feasibility of a single payment system for different types of transport, like the Oyster card in London. It will also look at how transport can be improved in rural areas and how this can benefit income generation and living standards, as well as investigate issues and opportunities for transporting freight, via road, rail, sea and air.
Shekhar Sanyal, Country Head and Director, IET India said “Members of the IET India FOMT panel were delighted to interact with various members of the Coventry University team and its start-ups. We look forward to working closely with the university’s relevant departments and start-ups on finding solutions around mobility that will create impact in the areas that the FOMT panel focuses on. We believe that these conversations are well-timed as the Government of India has announced ambitious schemes that have the potential to transform the country’s mobility scenario. We, at the IET, are very excited with the prospects and the future this could create. We look forward to working closely with key players in mobility space to set-up the roadmap for rural and urban mobility in India.”
