Zayed Education Foundation celebrated the graduation of the first cohort of its UAE-India Leaders Program at a special event hosted by IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi (IITD-AD)
The event brought together participants, business leaders, sector partners and distinguished guests to mark the completion of a transformative journey focused on leadership, innovation, and strengthening connections between the UAE and India.
In addition to music from the Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts, guests heard remarks from IITD-AD Executive Director Dr Shantanu Roy, and Professor Mohammad Ali Haider Vice Provost for Research and External Engagement at IITD-AD, as well as an address from Annina Mattsson, Acting Executive Director of Zayed Education Foundation.
"The UAE-India Leaders Program is about building lasting relationships, fostering mutual understanding, and empowering emerging leaders to address shared challenges and opportunities across our two countries."Annina Mattsson, Acting Executive Director, Zayed Education Foundation
Sixty Emiratis took part in the inaugural UAE-India Leaders Program, travelling to India for a carefully curated mix of field engagement, expert dialogue, and high-level exchanges with leaders and practitioners from across government, academia, cultural institutions and the private sector.
Following their return to the UAE, participants were asked to develop capstone projects that explored new ways to deepen UAE-India collaboration. Three of the initiatives were selected to receive further development and mentorship from IITD-AD, and their authors presented them at the graduation event.
The selected projects reflected the breadth of ideas generated across the programme's three cohorts and demonstrated participants' commitment to strengthening ties between the UAE and India.
Dr Hamad Al Kaabi, a senior manager at Masdar City and participant in the Science and Technology cohort, created a concept for a UAE-India Innovation Corridor to accelerate cross-border innovation, research, and technology collaboration.
Filmmaker Mansour Al Heera, from the Arts and Culture cohort, designed the partnership concept INTERPLAY, a music exchange program between India and the UAE that celebrates cultural exchange and fosters creative collaboration between artists from both countries.
And students Saif Al Falasi (Zayed University) and Sara Al Blooshi (New York University Abu Dhabi), from the International Relations cohort, designed a Youth Enterprise Bridge that would connect SMEs in the UAE with their peers in India.
The celebration served not only as a recognition of participants' achievements, but also as a reflection of the growing people-to-people ties between the UAE and India and the diversity of the UAE's public, private and academic sectors.
Participants represented leading organisations including e&, Masdar City, ADNOC, EDGE, and the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi. The cohort also included students and emerging leaders from a broad spectrum of UAE universities, including Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, New York University Abu Dhabi, Zayed University, and the United Arab Emirates University.
