India and Russia Collaboration in Information and Communication Technology and India and South Africa in “HIV Vaccine Research”



India and Russia Agree to Strengthen Collaboration in the Area of Information and Communication Technology 
Russia informed that they have developed a centre for Information and Communication Technology and would like to collaborate with India in this area.
The issue came up for discussion when the Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Science, Dr. Harsh Vardhan met his Russian counterpart Mr. Dmitry Livanov, Minister of Science and Education of the Russian Federation on 28 October, 2015 in Moscow on the sidelines of the BRICS ministerial meeting. Indian side said that, India had launched National Super Computing Mission, jointly being implemented by the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. India sought Russian assistance in development of high end technologies, both in software and hardware sectors (like Motherboard design; Direct Liquid Cooling Technology and Network Design technologies for supercomputers).

Both sides expressed happiness on the fact that there is very strong and longstanding Indo-Russia cooperation in science and Technology. A new S&T Agreement was signed between DST and the Russian Science Fund, during the visit of the President of India to Russia in May 2015.

Russian Minister emphasized the need of exchange of young scientists and researchers for building network and for exchange of ideas to address the global S&T challenges. In his response, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India is taking leadership for BRICS Young Scientist Forum and a Secretariat for coordinating all activities related to this Forum will be opened in India with Department of Science and Technology, of India as a coordinating point.

Mr. Livanov also desired that both sides must develop mechanism for engaging industries in R&D. He said that Russia is keen to participate in India's Technology Summit & Knowledge Expo with wide participation of Russian scientists. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India will be happy to invite Russian scientists and students in these events. This will boost the bilateral exchange program of students, scientists and their networking. India already implemented several bilateral international R&D Projects involving Academia and Industries working on 2+2 model involving one academic institution and one industry from each country. Both sides agreed to explore possibilities to launch future joint Call for Proposals involving Industry. Indian Minister said that there are about 80-90 R&D labs doing very good research and they need assistance in technology commercialization and technology transfer. 
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India and South Africa agree to Strengthen Collaboration in Key Areas of Science, Including in the Field of “HIV Vaccine Research” 
The Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Science, Dr. Harsh Vardhan and the South African Minister for Science, Technology Ms. Naledi Pandor expressed satisfaction at the on-going India- South Africa collaboration in key areas such as Health Sciences and Biotechnology; Astronomy & Astrophysics, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Green Chemistry and the Mega project in the area of “HIV Vaccine Research Collaboration” with co-funding to the tune of US $ 1 million from both sides. During the 3rd BRICS of Science and Technology Ministerial Meeting held in Moscow on 27th and 28th this month the two side held bilateral discussions on all the projects.

South African Minister Ms. Pandore desired that India may also help h South Africa specially in Space Science, Agriculture and food security and in converting of Pharma based indigenous knowledge into wealth.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India will happy to collaborate with South Africa in these areas. He said the present Indian government, has created The Ministry of AYUSH in 2014 for providing better health-care to the public. This will also help in upgrading the educational standards in Indian Systems of Medicines and Homoeopathy colleges in the country; Strengthen existing research institutions and ensure a time-bound research programme on identified diseases for which these systems have an effective treatment. He assured South African Minister, that he will help in building the linkages between two sides in this area. For India- South Africa collaboration in Space Science, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India had launched the ASTROSAT satellite for space probe and India will be happy to provide necessary assistance to South Africa. ASTROSAT is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. It was launched on a PSLV-XL on 28 September 2015. Further, he said that, Ministry of Earth Sciences is providing farmers centric information using modern tool and techniques which has helped the farmers and helped in crores of rupees being saved. He said, India has a number of international collaborations in earth sciences centric research and services projects and India would be happy to help South Africa too in this area. 


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