Delhi, June 28: The International Engineering Alliance (IEA) meeting was held at Cape Town, South Africa, from 7 to 12 June 2026, bringing together representatives from various member countries to deliberate on matters relating to international accreditation and engineering education standards.

During the meeting, the agendas presented by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), India, concerning the Washington Accord and Dublin Accord were taken up for consideration and were viewed favourably, marking another significant step towards strengthening India's global standing in engineering and technical education accreditation.

Prof. Shyam Sundar Pattnaik, Vice-Chancellor of Odisha State Open University (OSOU), was part of the four-member delegation nominated by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, which represented the country at the prestigious international forum.

The participation of Prof. Pattnaik in the high-level deliberations reflects the growing contribution of Indian academia towards enhancing quality assurance and fostering international cooperation in engineering education.

OSOU VC Prof. Pattnaik along with 3 ace technology experts led by Prof. Anil D Sahashrabudhe, Chairman, NBA & Dr. A K Nassa, Member Secretary NBA discussed the Indian Technology system with delegations of 33 signatory nations with 28 permanent members and 5 provisional ones wherein cutting-edge technological studies were exchanged.

OSOU Vice Chancellor Prof. Pattnaik during the deliberation with the able leadership of Dr A K Nassa member Secretary NBA and Prof Sahasrabudhe could place the agendas for Dublin Accord and Washington for greater global equivalency and mobility of the Indian technical workforce.

Worth mentioning, the technical expert team was sent by the Ministry of Education, Government of India to see that our quality education in both engineering and diploma get better global mobility and equivalency to represent the global workforce, matching international standard.