France finances research in India
After a series of short-term joint scientific research initiatives, the French government has announced its decision to establish long-term scientific cooperation with India. As part of the long-term initiative, joint research laboratories involving wet (water) laboratories and online data access in ten different fields have already been set up in different parts of India. An Indo-French laboratory for ground water research, at the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad, and an Indo-French cell on water sciences at the Indian Institute for Science (IIS), Bangalore, will also be established. The joint research laboratories will support industrial research projects with links to research and development (R&D) laboratories in India. 'This cooperation in science and technology is for a period of three years. And of the ten laboratories, six have been set up in Bangalore, involving water science technology, organic chemistry, solid state chemistry, mathematics, bioinformatics and IT [information technology],' said Samuel Elmaleh, the attaché for science and technology at the French Embassy in Bangalore. Speaking at a conference on the 'Promotion of public-private transfer of knowledge in the biotech industry: case studies from India and Europe' at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotech (IBAB), Mr Elmaleh stated that 'This is expected to pave the way for further intensification of collaboration between the two sides leading to commercialisation.'
Countries
France, India