On June 2, 2026, SRM University‑AP formalised an industry‑academia partnership with Japanese technology enterprise Techno Smile by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, the agreement being executed by Dr Vinayak Kalluri, Registrar of SRM University‑AP. The MoU set an ambitious target of creating fifty career opportunities for SRM engineering students in Japan by 2028.
To operationalise the partnership, Techno Smile’s senior leadership visited the SRM campus on September 10‑11, 2026, conducting a two‑day job fair that engaged over 1,000 first‑ and second‑year engineering students and culminated in the selection of seventeen engineering students from the 2027 “Destination Japan” graduating batch for international career tracks, bringing the total number of students placed to eighteen.
Further strategic discussions took place on August 6, 2026, when Mr Sankar Karunanidhi, Country Manager of SRM Global Consulting Pvt Ltd, travelled to Techno Smile’s Aichi Head Office in Nagoya and met Mr Ryoma Yoshinaga, Managing Executive Officer of the Technology Business Division, and Mr Syuntaro Suzuki, Deputy Head of the same division, to define concrete steps for building a sustainable hiring pipeline.
On the university side, the Corporate Relations and Career Services (CRCS) team, led by Dr M S Vivekanandan, Director of Corporate Relations and Career Services, together with Mr Jotish Kumar, CEO of SRM Global Consulting, prepared the students through a programme that combined Japanese‑style interview training, technical readiness, and communication coaching, ensuring graduates are equipped to meet Japanese hiring conventions.
The partnership’s immediate impact is the placement of seventeen students, with a longer‑term goal of fifty placements by 2028, while also raising awareness among a broader student body about international career possibilities in Japan.