New Delhi: India and Singapore will cooperate with each other in setting up 14 "innovation universities" in India, Minister of Human Resource and Development (HRD), Kapil Sibal said recently.

Sibal said India needs 21st century universities to bridge the huge skill shortage and added that Singapore can be the best country to collaborate with in this area. The Minister was speaking at the inaugural session of the Singapore Symposium organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Sibal identified infrastructure, education, and skill development as the potential areas of cooperation between India and Singapore.

On infrastructure, he said that India is grappling with the challenge of building architecture for 21st Century cities and added that cooperation with Singapore in this sector can be beneficial in identifying a possible solution.

In education and skill development, he said Singapore has achieved an enormous level of excellence in innovation and India is rich in skilled manpower.

"Greater cooperation between the two countries can result in win-win opportunities for the two countries," Sibal said.

India, he said, has recently initiated steps to reform the education sector. Positive results are expected by 2014. He also said that the government is not opposed to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) opening branches outside India.

-- IANS