Premier Jacinta Allan had a fruitful visit to India last month. Promoting many initiatives to progress Victoria-India interests, batting for Victoria in India, we also saw the girl in her slipping out when she “begged” (offered) to audition as a first sitting Premier to work in a Bollywood film.
No matter how big a politician, you cannot take the human out of the office!
I am sure she is surrounded by many who have their strong connections in Bollywood and that, perhaps post politics career is almost guaranteed.
For Victoria, a lot has happened during the visit. In an Australian first, the Allan Labor Government team up with the Pro Kabaddi League of India to explore bringing a PKL showcase to Melbourne.
Premier Jacinta Allan joined Head of Sports at Disney Star Sanjog Gupta and League Commissioner of PKL Anupam Goswami in India to announce they will work together to bring an event to Melbourne in the next 18 months.
Premier Allan also addressed the Australia India Institute’s Annual Oration in New Delhi.
“The connection between Victoria and India is a powerful one. It’s a friendship that extends over an ocean, and a partnership that supports collaboration and cooperation”, Premier Allan said while delivering the address.
Premier also joined RMIT Executive Director International Layton Pike to meet Professor V. Ramgopal Rao Vice-Chancellor Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) in New Delhi to celebrate the innovative ways to expand their partnerships.
Premier also announced a new $5 million Transnational Education – Yes to International Students Fund to help help more partnerships like RMIT–BITS and attract more international students to Victoria.
International Students
India is the Victorian education sector’s biggest client and thus most lucrative cash source. When the federal government decided to introduce international student caps, it squeezed Victoria’s cash source, directly impacting on capital to allocate to health, domestic education and infrastructure. Thus, one of the items on the agenda was also to alley any fears among the students who were/are considering Victoria as their study destination, and mitigate the damage.
“We say yes to international students because they boost our economy and our global reputation, they support our small businesses, and they keep our multicultural state connected with the world,” Premier Allan said.
“We say no to the Federal Government’s caps. Our new fund is going to help our unis and TAFEs find innovative ways to challenge them and make our offering to international students even stronger.”
Minister for Economic Growth Tim Pallas added, “We want to axe the caps, but we also want to bring something positive to the table that can grow our economy and keep us innovating.”
Jobs
Premier Jacinta Allan met with Indian IT company Firstsource last month while visiting Delhi to announce it will establish its new headquarters in Melbourne creating up to 420 jobs in Victoria.
Firstsource is a global business process services company that provides digital transformation solutions to a broad range of industries including healthcare, banking and financial services, communications, media and technology, education, utilities and energy.
Attracting Firstsource’s Australia and New Zealand headquarters to Victoria will grow the state’s digital capabilities, bringing new proprietary technology and driving more research. Firstsource plans to partner with Victorian education institutions to set up an innovation lab focused on AI, engineering, robotics and digital experimentation.
Thus, with sport, education jobs, international students sorted, the Bollywood cameo as the icing on the cake should perhaps be forgiven by her critics who may question her decision to go for a ‘job interview’ on a taxpayer funded trip.