March 4, 2024
Sakura Science Program Headquarters
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)SSC ALUMNI meet PM MODI
JST India Sakura Science Club Alumni Association (ISSCA) 5th Alumni Meeting

Alumnus speaks to Prime Minister Modi
about his dream of being a bridge between India and Japan.

On February 17, 2024, young people from India who had previously participated in the Sakura Science Program(SSP) gathered in New Delhi for the 5th ISSCA alumni meeting. The SSP is a program for international youth
exchange, and is run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). In addition to the 58 attending Indianalumni, the venue also hosted guests from the Indian Ministry of Education, the Department of Science andTechnology, Indian Institutes of Technology, and the Embassy of Japan in India, as well as family members ofparticipants, enabling a total of 87 people to meet under one roof and further their interactions. At the beginning ofthe meeting, H.E. Mr. NISHIMURA Yasutoshi, the Chairman of the Japan-India Parliamentary Friendship League(JIPFL), sent a video message of congratulations. In addition to recognizing the achievements of ISSCA, he encouraged
the members to continue to contribute to exchanges between Japan and India.

Alumni meetings are held in various key countries, and always serve as forums for members to exchange
information and take further steps forward. This meeting of Indian alumni was an opportunity for stimulating
conversations in an atmosphere of freedom, and for actively reconfirming the bonds with Japan fostered by theparticipants’ experiences in the SSP.
One of the alumni at the meeting, Ashish Kumar
Verma (17 years old), participated in the SAKURASCIENCE High School Program (SSHP) in July 2023
as an Indian high school student representative. (Heseized this opportunity through being recommended
by MOE and DST after winning the INSPIRE award.)
He said that when he visited Kyoto University, he wasparticularly impressed by the words of Professor
Hiroshi Kitagawa of the Graduate School of Science:“Science is not about memorising things, it’s an art oftrying different things out and understanding to create
Ashish Kumar Verma explaining his research to Prime Minister Modi

amazing things.”
Ashish explained that in September 2023, after hereturned to India, his research on generative AI, upon which he had worked by himself, received acknowledgment
and he was given the opportunity to speak directly with Prime Minister Modi. At the time, he excitedly told the Prime
Minister both about his experience visiting Japan through the SSHP and about his dream of playing an active role inbringing India and Japan together.

This alumni meeting left a strong sense of great anticipation that the activities of the SSP/SSHP alumni will form
a foundation to encourage future brain circulation between India and Japan.

Group photo of the ISSCA 5th alumni meeting (New Delhi, February 17, 2024)

SAKURA SCIENCE Club (SSC)People who come to Japan on Sakura Science Exchange Program will be certified as members of the Sakura Science
Club, the alumni association of the Sakura Science Exchange Program.
Sakura Science Club provides members with useful information on the website, and alumni meetings are held in
various places so that club members continue to be active as a bridge between Japan and their home country. Inaddition, members are connected by SNS and interact freely. The club has about 37,000 members and has become ahuge network.

(March 4, 2024 Weekly Bunkyo News)