SPbPU's Strategic Partnership with India through Go-Brics Forum
A meeting with Viktor Kokushkin, Vice President of the Go-Brics Business Forum, was held at SPbPU. The president of this organization is a well-known Indian public and political figure, Purnima Anand, who actively supports Russia. The agreement on the development of partnership with Go-Brics Business Forum was reached during a personal meeting between SPbPU Rector Andrei Rudskoi and Ms. Purnima Anand, which took place on October 29, 2025 on the sidelines of the Russian Industrialist Forum. The parties discussed the prospects of cooperation in the field of education, technological entrepreneurship and youth projects within the framework of the BRICS association, with special attention to the Republic of India, a strategic partner of Russia.
Dmitry Arseniev, vice-rector for international affairs at SPbPU, presented the university’s best practices in the field of international cooperation, including the experience of strategic partnership within the framework of the BRICS International Municipal Forum and the participation of Polytechnic students in major educational and competitive projects.
In particular, Dmitry Arseniev spoke about the international student project marathon initiated by the Polytechnic University, an effective mechanism for joint international research and design activities of students and young scientists, where multinational teams solve real engineering, technical and IT tasks.
Viktor Kokushkin presented the Go-Brics Business Forum as a platform for commercializing cooperation between the participating countries. He highly appreciated the Polytechnic’s potential and expressed interest in working together to form an «intelligent pipeline» connecting Indian IT expertise with Russia’s leading engineering school.
The parties discussed a plan to hold a large-scale, multi-level competitive hackathon with the participation of several thousand students from Russia, India, the UAE and other BRICS countries. It is scheduled to start in early March. In late December, Polytechnic students participated in a test hackathon that tested the Go-Brics Business Forum online platform, created specifically for technical competitions. The participants stressed the need to closely link educational programs with the demands of the industry and discussed the mechanisms by which the winners of student competitions could receive not only awards, but also guaranteed internships in Indian and other foreign high-tech companies.
They also discussed the invitation of talented Indian students to the English-language educational programs of Polytechnic University, the participation of BRICS students in summer and winter schools of Polytechnic University, the implementation of research and development for Indian companies, the involvement of their specialists in retraining and advanced training programs at SPbPU, the commercialization of innovative university developments and other issues.
The meeting participants agreed to further develop specific pilot projects, including the organization of the upcoming hackathon, and outlined ways to sign a strategic partnership agreement.