Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister of for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India, interacted with the press at India House on June 15th. Following the 5th Indo-UK Science and Innovation Council Meeting (SIC) held at London on the same day, he informed that India and UK have agreed to work together on two major initiatives.
As a part of the promised solar alliance, they aim to establish India-UK Networked Centre on Solar Energy linked to India’s renewable energy mission and UK’s Supergens Program. It will focus on systems level design and development covering Solar energy generation, Storage systems and Grid integration particularly for micro-grid systems. India would be investing INR 50 crores over a period of five years with matching contribution from Research Council UK under Newton-Bhabha program.
Another agreement was on the access to Indian researchers to the Neutron Scattering facility of the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxford. This will enhance Indian capability to create interesting and technologically important materials through research in fundamental science. As a part of its Nano mission program, the Department of Science and Technology (India) would be investing INR 26.5 crores. Currently, the value of investment in Indo-UK research and development cooperation from multiple Indian and UK agencies exceeds £200 million of co-funding. UK is currently amongst the top three collaborating countries in science and technology with India.
Under the Newton-Bhabha Programme two sides also agreed on the collaborative program on Energy Efficiency in Built Environmentas a part of the Smart Cities mission, in the area of life and health sciences, virtual joint centres on Agricultural Nitrogen, a collaborative research program to improve water quality in India, pharmaceutical and personal care products. This program is being developed to support implementation of the goals of the National Mission for Clean Ganga, ‘Namami Gange’.
On the looming issue of Brexit, which might affect UK’s economy and subsequently its investment in such collaborative research organisations, Dr. Harsh Vardhan seemed optimistic. He said, “Till now, the UK has honoured its commitment to this research funding and we do not see why that will change in the near future in case Britain decides to exit the EU.”
Earlier, Dr. Harsh Vardhan and his delegation had visited the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Oxford. He held discussions with Vice Chancellor and Pro-Vice Chancellor for research & Innovation on possibilities of collaboration in the area of Science and Technology. During his visit Hon'ble Minister had interaction with students Oxford India Society, CRISP and Rhodes scholars.
