Pioneering role honoured The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has felicitated Deakin University's Professor Peter Hodgson for his outstanding contribution to the Indian Academia and Industry. The CII is a 117-year-old not-for-profit, industry led and managed premier business association with a direct membership of over 7100 Indian companies from the private as well as public sectors. These include SMEs and MNCs and an indirect membership of over 90,000 companies from around 250 national and regional sectoral associations across India. Professor Hodgson, one of the Australian Government's inaugural ARC Australian Laureate Fellows, was presented with the Felicitation at the CII's 4th Global Higher Education Summit. For over the past seven years, Professor Hodgson has travelled extensively across India and has been instrumental in introducing the concept of Industry - Academia partnership in India. During his more than 50 visits to India, he has been able to establish  successful partnerships with leading Indian Universities and Institutes including: This is a feat that not many globally renowned universities have achieved. Through the Deakin India Research Initiative (DIRI), a brainchild of Professor Hodgson, launched in India on 1st October 2009, the University  has been able to provide 15 active Industry Academia Partnerships, many of which are being used as case studies and benchmarks across India and Australia as an ideal model for engagement. More than 40 research projects are being undertaken through these partnerships and over $A3 million have been invested towards collaborative research work in these partnerships. As an offshoot of the DIRI