Israeli help for India through $4-M R&D fund

Friday, 30 July 2004, 19:30 IST
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JERUSALEM: Israel will help India through a $4 million R&D fund being set up for high priority programmes in agricultural, medical and environmental biotechnology, nanotechnology and the genome. "India and Israel have the quality manpower needed and we in India can learn from the Israelis how to get laboratory knowledge to generate money for operational development," said V.S. Ramamurthy, India's secretary of the department of science and technology. He was speaking after inking an agreement with Israel's Minister of Science and Technology Ilan Shalgi Wednesday at a meting of the joint committee on cooperation in science and technology between the two countries. "Research programmes will be implemented in India and Israel, depending on the available resources and facilities," said Ramamurthy. The secretary was accompanied by Sanjay G. Dhande, director of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, B.M. Gandhi, adviser in the department of biotechnology, and M. Bandopadhyay, adviser for international cooperation in science and technology. The two countries have agreed to raise $2 million each to cover its activities over the next two years. "This may not be big but the programmes will be of high quality on the cutting edge of technology," said Ramamurthy, promising a more aggressive Indian science and technology policy and an upgrading of professional scientific ties with Israel. He said the Tel Aviv University was working on an R&D project on deafness, citing that as an example of "practical research that can be harnessed for social and economic development." The Indian team visited the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot, Tel Aviv University and the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and are scheduled to meet scientists of the Agricultural Research Organization, Beit Dagan, south of Tel Aviv.
Source: IANS