India, Israel for new pact in science & tech
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Tuesday, 23 December 2003, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India and Israel have agreed to go in for a new comprehensive agreement for cooperation in science and technology. This will spell out the common agenda, methodology, joint technology development and upgradation of technology. Within six months, the two sides will prepare a Plan of Action, identifying the joint projects to be taken up besides other activities for implementation during the next two years. This is revealed in a joint statement issued at the end of discussions between the two delegations, headed by the Israeli Minister for Science and Technology, Eliezer Sandberg and the Minister of Sate for Science and Technology, Shri Bachi Singh Rawat. The two ministers while reaffirming their firm commitment to promote scientific and technological collaboration, agreed that this constitutes an important element for fostering socio-economic development of the peoples of the two countries. The Israeli Minister was keen on cooperation in Nano-technology, Nano-biotechnology and solar energy. Cooperation in space technology and applications also figured during the talks. Israel is interested in India launching some of its micro-satellites. For this, the Israeli delegation is going to Bangalore tomorrow for talks with ISRO authorities. Shri Bachi Singh Rawat expressing India’s keenness in expanding the scope of cooperation with Israel said opportunities will be provided to young researchers to upgrade their sills in their areas of interest and short-term fellowships would be made available to them. Both the Ministers also agreed to allocate adequate funds required for undertaking joint research projects etc. The Space Agencies of the two countries has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding on TAUVEX-GSAT-4, which offers a unique opportunity to put the Indian and Israeli scientists in the front line of space-astrophysics. The TAUVEX is a set of three wide-field telescopes that will image the ultraviolet sky. It was specifically recognised that installing TAUVEX on-board the technology demonstrator satellite GSAT-4 would be ideal for operating TAUVEX as a scientific payload in geo-synchronous orbit. While this will allow the Israeli team to realise its goals, it will bring in UV expertise to the Indian astrophysical community.

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