Ministers Outline S&T Agenda ahead of PM Modi’s visit to Japan
By TN Ashok
New Delhi, Aug 05 : India and Japan today decided to revive the Indo Japan Science and Technology committee for a more meaningful coordination between the two Asian nations ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s forthcoming visit to Japan.
“India will soon revive the joint Indo-Japan Science & Technology Committee for a more effective coordination between the two important Asian nations”, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, said while welcoming the Japanese Minister for Science & Technology Hakubun Shimomura, who called on him today.
Dr Jitendra Singh suggested to his Japanese counter-part some of the new Science and Technology proposals which could be taken up during the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan. He announced the Government’s plan to initiate the second phase of flagship programme of the “Indian Beam Line at High – Energy Accelerator Research Organization” (KEK) at Tsukuba for research on Advanced Materials.
The Minister also proposed establishing an India-Japan joint center in India in the area of “Life Sciences and Biotechnology” to look at the emerging challenges of disease biology in Asia.
Emphasizing the need for initiating collaboration in diverse fields of Science, Dr Jitendra Singh highlighted the importance on “Deep Water Ocean Technology” including technology development for extraction of Gas Hydrates. He also suggested to his Japanese counter-part the launch of a comprehensive Fellowship Programme for India and Japan Researchers in order to build national talent capacity in both the countries.
The Japanese Science & Technology Minister Hakubun Shimomura appreciated the suggestions and proposals made by Dr Jitendra Singh and said that the cooperation between the two countries should enable India and Japan to move to a higher level of strategy engagement for providing leadership among Asian nations. This would also help in addressing the social needs in Health, Food, Energy and Disaster Management through application of Science & Technology, added Hakubun Shimomura.
The areas of Ocean Technology and Space Science were particularly emphasized by the Japanese Science & Technology Minister for collaboration between the two countries.