Partnership to skill over 100,000 students in sustainability fields by 2030 through industry–academia collaboration

Mumbai, India : Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON) today announced an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) to establish a new Centre of Excellence at the Institute’s Powai campus that will help skill more than 100,000 students by 2030 in sustainability-related fields.

The IIT Bombay – Honeywell Centre of Excellence for Future Skills & Innovation (IITB-Honeywell CoE) will be created and fully funded by Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF) – Honeywell’s philanthropic arm in India. The IITB-Honeywell CoE will offer advanced laboratory infrastructure, equipment procurement, curriculum design and research and innovation grants.

In its pilot phase over the next two months, the IITB-Honeywell CoE will focus on establishing core infrastructure, developing a specialized curriculum and training a first phase of 250 students. The IITB-Honeywell CoE will offer certificate-based programs featuring coursework and hands-on projects aligned with real-world sustainability challenges. It will benefit undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students from across the country. Following the pilot phase, subsequent phases are expected to engage nearly 20,000 students per year during the partnership, through the IITB-Honeywell CoE’s structured curriculum.

As India digitally transforms its economy and critical sectors such as energy, it faces a growing shortage of sustainability professionals with cross-disciplinary, technology-driven skills. According to the Economic Survey 2023-24[i], India aims to create 3.4 million jobs in the green sector by 2030. The renewable energy industry alone faces a deficit of 1.2 million skilled workers, a number that could swell to 1.7 million by 2027, according to TeamLease[ii]. The IITB-Honeywell CoE will address the growing demand for skilled sustainability professionals by combining classroom learning with applied research across five learning tracks: Sustainability Reporting, Sustainable Finance, Energy Security, Sustainability Infrastructure and Policy Advocacy.

“Skilling our workforce is central to building a future-ready and sustainable India. Our collaboration with IIT Bombay reinforces Honeywell’s commitment to developing high-quality talent across sustainability fields, as India accelerates growth through its AI-powered digital economy,” said Ashish Modi, President, India and Asia Pacific, Honeywell. “Honeywell’s new CoE aligns with this digital transformation and will equip students with the right industrial skills to support long-term economic growth with sustainability at the core.”

The IITB-Honeywell CoE’s course structure, applicable through 2030, requires each student to complete 40 hours of training across the five learning tracks. Classroom programming and applied research will be jointly delivered by the IIT Bombay faculty and industry specialists and supported by Honeywell employees through volunteer mentorship, technical guidance and career-readiness training.

“IIT Bombay has always emphasized translating academic excellence into societal impact,” said Prof. Shireesh B. Kedare, Director, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. “The establishment of our Centre of Excellence with Honeywell strengthens that mission by giving students experiential learning beyond the classroom, enabling them to engage meaningfully with real-world sustainability challenges that are critical to India’s future.”

The partnership with IIT Bombay is a defining milestone under Honeywell India’s flagship ‘Saksham’ skilling initiative. Under Saksham, STEM students nationwide are trained in AI, cybersecurity and sustainability, while the IIT Bombay collaboration will focus specifically on sustainability-skilling through the IITB-Honeywell CoE.