MoS Jitendra Singh meets EU delegation, discuss Science & Technology cooperation

Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday welcomed a European Union (EU) delegation led by Ambassador Ugo Astuto. While expressing happiness, the Union Minister appreciated EU's move to extend the Science and Technology Agreement for a period of five years. Quoting Jitendra Singh, the Ministry of Science and Technology said that the India-EU collaboration represented the aspiration of 2 billion people. Further, MoS Singh reiterated developing a shared approach at the multilateral level to address global challenges.

"India-EU must deepen cooperation in the areas like health, agriculture, water, renewable energy, biotechnology, electric mobility, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and environment," Dr Jitendra Singh said referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advice that the ultimate aim of all scientific endeavour is to bring "Ease of Living" for a common man. 

Furthermore, MoS Singh appreciated the progress made so far in the field of science and technology with the collaboration EU. He said the collaborative effort resulted in new innovation even during the COVID pandemic. He reiterated that the COVID pandemic had changed the global scenario of the economy and added that science and technology have to play a greater role to address this pandemic by bringing scientists and researchers together.

"India under PM Modi led from the front in fighting COVID and today we are exporting the indigenously developed vaccines in response to the global call of duty, added Singh during the meeting with EU delegates. 

Recalling the recent launch of "Horizon Europe (2021-2027)"-- a key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion-- he bolstered the initiative taken by the European Union and congratulated the delegation for approaching Indian scientific agencies for its participation in Horizon Europe. "India is willing to participate in this programme provided some of the concerns on issues related to IPR sharing, the scope of the joint call, signing of Model Grant Agreement and joint evaluation are addressed at the satisfaction of both the sides," Sigh said on Wednesday. 

According to the statement released by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the EU Ambassador also thanked Dr Jitendra for India's support for protecting the Antarctic environment by co-sponsoring the proposal of the European Union for designating East Antarctica and the Weddell Sea as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) recently. Both sides agreed that IPR, data sharing and materials/equipment transfer would be done as per relevant provisions in the India-EU Science and Technology Agreement and principles and policies of IPR. A joint panel will be created to draft the IPR and data sharing mechanisms, added the statement. 

With inputs from ANI

Image: Twitter/@DrJitendraSingh