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US, India sign umbrella agreement for science and technology co-operation

2005-10-18 India and the United States today signed a wide-ranging agreement on Science and Technology to facilitate collaboration between scientists of both the countries in several areas ranging from health to space technology.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice initialised the ''Science and Technology Umbrella Agreement'' on behalf of the US while Minister of state for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal signed it on behalf of India at the Treaty Room in the US State Department here.

Ambassador Ronen Sen, along with members of the India delegation were present at the signing ceremony which was also witnessed by a host of American officials.

''This new agreement is expected to accelerate cooperation between Indian and US scientists working in government agencies, private sector and academia,'' according to Indian diplomatic sources here.

The areas for collaboration covered basic sciences, space, energy, nanotechnology, health and information technology, they said, adding that the agreement, would also complement the activities of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, established in 2000.

Bilateral relations between the US and India have blossomed in recent years leading to an unprecedented joint agreement between President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh envisaging civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

In effect, Washington agreed to lift a ban on civilian nuclear technology sales to nuclear armed India, even though it has not signed the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) enabling New Delhi to find a passageway into the exclusive nuclear club of five nations.

The US had placed sanctions on India after its second round of nuclear tests in May 1998, but agreed after the September 11, 2001 attacks to waive those and other sanctions in return for support in the war on terrorism.

India and the US have had a long tradition of scientific cooperation, with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, as highly-successful testimonials of this collaboration.

An Indo-US science and technology agreement was first mooted in 1993, but it ran into trouble over differences relating to intellectual property rights provisions. Then in 1997, the Indo-US S&T Forum was proposed, but even as the terms of the mechanism were being negotiated, the efforts were overtaken by the Pokharan nuclear tests, pushing all talk of Indo-US scientific cooperation into cold storage.

Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, the sources said would help facilitate and promote the interaction, of government, academia, and industry in science, technology and other related areas.

The Forum is expected to promote research and development, the transfer of technology, the creation of a comprehensive electronic reference source for Indo-US science and technology cooperation, and the electronic exchange and dissemination of information on Indo-US science and technology cooperation.

The Forum will establish an electronic reference source in order to promote an active electronic exchange of ideas and opportunities in Indo-US science and technology cooperation. The Forum will also commission studies, reports and papers and would assist in facilitating and promoting joint collaboration of projects between Indian and American scientists.