New Delhi, Nov 8. (PTI): India and ASEAN have reached an accord to enhance partnership in the field of science and technology with a thrust on bio-technology and agriculture.

"The agreement is on setting up an Indo-ASEAN Science and Technology Fund to undertake collaborative work in Research and Development and technology development in areas of common interest," Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 12th Technology Summit and Technology Platform here.

The areas of common interest include bio-technology and pharmaceuticals, agriculture for food security and advanced materials.
The Summit has been jointly organised by the Department of Science and Technology, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology.

Sibal and Malaysian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Jamaluadin Mohammed Jarjis, who is leading the ASEAN delegation, signed the agreement on Monday.

"The Summit has been an enormous success and was attended by the representatives of various countries," Sibal said.

He said there was a huge market for agricultural products and bio-technology. "We have to consolidate this market and to come out with a regulatory framework to ensure that the value addition resulting from there ensures benefit to the ASEAN region," he said.

He said another decision was to set up India-ASEAN Institute for Intellectual Property for building human resource capacities and training to serve the ASEAN region.

Sibal said in view of the symbolic relationship between Science and Technology and economic progress the India-ASEAN partnership will encourage linkages between academic institutions, research laboratories, professional bodies and industry.

"This will help in creating a knowledge grid and will support the mobility of members of the scientific community," he said.

The Minister said youth and children should be involved in science to promote it on a large scale.

"It is a broad framework. The bilateral talks also gave us a roadmap for the future. India could utilise the Malaysian companies expertise in engineering and construction work," he said.

"Private industry has already moved ahead in these markets. The drug industry is already strong. India could also provide its expertise in many areas like defence services and Railways," he said.

Sibal said a Tsunami Early Warning System would be inter-connected with the Malaysian network so that a warning is relayed to them in seconds.
Jarjis said India has shown that the East can prosper.

"It is an historic occasion and the link with India is the way for prosperity and better future. The region could work together, instead of outsourcing. This alternative will be cheaper, effective and will provide better quality too in these key areas," the Malaysian Minister said.

He said Malaysian Prime Minister and Deputy Minister were in India earlier this year and discussed areas of mutual cooperation.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200611080312.htm

KATHMANDU, Nov. 6: India will set up a Digital INSAT Ground Receiving Station in Nepal under bilateral cooperation programme, stated a press statement issued by the Indian Embassy.

The Station would strengthen the on-going science and technology cooperation between the two countries which has seen, inter alia the establishment of Tele-clock service for Nepali standard time, said the embassy.

The bilateral science and technology cooperation programme was also expected to witness the establishment of super computer, science learning centre and other related projects in Nepal.

A four-member delegation of Nepalese Scientists led by Senior Divisional Meteorologist, Department of Hydrology & Meteorologist, Government of Nepal left on a 5-day tour to India on 5 November 2006, said the embassy.

During the 5-day tour the delegation would familiarize themselves with the existing Meteorological Data Dissemination (MDD) equipment at Indian Meteorological Department in New Delhi and elsewhere in India, informed the embassy.

http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=5811

This Gita is not the one that Lord Krishna delivered during the Mahabharatha. The new age GITA is Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA).

Tuesday, November 07, 2006: New Delhi: The department of science and technology (DST) under the ministry of science and technology, Government of India, and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have signed an MoU on Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA).

The MoU was signed by secretary, DST, Dr T. Ramasami and CII president, R. Seshasayee, in the presence of union minister for science and technology and earth sciences, Kapil Sibal.

Welcoming the development, the minister said, "There is a greater global exploitation of technology as exemplified by export flows of high tech products across nations and technological collaboration for generic technologies. Therefore, we can no longer afford to go ahead on our own and have to develop technology in partnership with entities, nationally or internationally. GITA is one such example of public-private partnership."

The broad objective of GITA project is to promote and facilitate technology partnership between overseas and Indian industry/institutes with the aim of enhancing technology competitiveness of Indian organisations. The technology partnerships can take place through various modes under the framework of national/international laws and will facilitate joint development, technology transfer and licencing etc. as well as form joint ventures and collaborations.

Through various mechanisms, the alliance will ensure that Indian industry and other organisations get benefited by generation of new technology opportunities.

The alliance will come out with various promotional and networking forums created by CII and DST. The alliance will focus on creating of independent entities within or outside CII and under partnership between CII, DST and overseas partners. It will also encourage joint technology development and commercialisation projects. The scope and form of these entities shall be decided mutually on case to case basis. The alliance is also contemplating creation of an International Technology Promotion and Facilitation Park for showcasing and commercialising the most promising technologies available through overseas networking.

http://www.efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnews.asp?edid=15318&magid=11

BANGALORE: India's space scientists and technologists will hold a brain-storming session on Tuesday to explore the viability of undertaking a manned mission to the moon by the end of the next decade.

With President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam rooting for such an adventure, about 50-60 experts from top research labs and scientific institutions will get a preview of the ambitious project conceived by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that is planning to send an Indian astronaut into space on a indigenous space capsule by 2014.

"We have already made a presentation to the prime minister last month (Oct 17) on our capabilities to launch a manned mission into space by 2014. As preparations to launch an unmanned lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1) by 2008 are under way, we will be exploring the prospects of landing an Indian on moon by at least 2020," a top ISRO official said.

At the meeting, ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair will make a detailed presentation on the pros and cons of launching a manned mission to the moon, the benefits that are expected to accrue from such a mission and the resources required to undertake it.

"We have invited the heads of various research and development organisations, including the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Indian Institute of Science, National Aerospace Laboratories and the department of science & technology to ascertain their views on the project and draw a road map for embarking on such a mission," the official said.

Based on the deliberations and feedback from the experts, ISRO plans to prepare a project report for government approval and budgetary allocation in the 11th and 12th five-year plans.

Prime Minister's Science Advisory Council chairman C.N.R. Rao and former ISRO chairmen K. Kasturirangan and U.R. Rao have also been invited to participate in the daylong session and present their views on the multibillion rupee project.

"Though we have the capabilities and resources to undertake such a mission, we need to cover a lot of ground to assess its viability in terms of the prohibitive cost, materials and manpower involved. The issue is not whether we can do, but at what cost and how the country would benefit from it," U R Rao said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/340785.cms

NEW DELHI - Top government and business officials from India and ASEAN countries were meeting Monday to discuss collaboration in research and technology development in efforts to futher strengthen their economic ties.

The two-day conference, which ends Tuesday, was to focus on cooperation in such areas as biotechnology, information and commmunication technology and protection of intellectual property rights.

Collaboration in space technology and its application in expediting economic development of the Asian region also was on the agenda, said the Confederation of Indian Industry, one of the hosts to the meetings.

Participants included science and technology ministers, top researchers and business leaders from India and the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

India's trade and investment ties to the ASEAN region have rapidly grown in recent years. Both sides are now negotiating a free trade pact.

ASEAN comprises Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4313384.html

New Delhi, Nov 6 (IANS) India and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on a programme to link science and technology with local market needs, Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said here Monday.

They have to "put in place a five-point programme to connect innovation with science and technology to make it locally relevant," said Sibal at the 12th Technology Summit and Technology Platform organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Around 130 participants from 10 ASEAN countries and South Korea are participating in the summit.

The five-point programme includes building effective linkages between market and non-market forces, between science and business, establishing stable markets without barriers, fostering private and public sector collaborations and encouraging diffusion of technology to business.

It also envisages facilitating the movement of people between institutions and across borders, said Sibal.

The challenges facing the India and the ASEAN region are common but too large to be faced singly, the minister stated.

Underlining the need to be convinced that science and technology has the potential to bring about change for the greater common good, Sibal said countries must to "collaborate, not compete, in science and technology".

Each country has its own strengths in research, development and science that make collaboration between them critical.

"We need an ASEAN Innovation Fund to foster such collaborations in the region that will help address the problems common to the region," Sibal said.

"We need local technical solutions that are affordable, accessible, indigenous and collaborative. These have to be ideal solutions for real-life problems."

India has emerged as a global research and development hub, with over 300 research centres of multinational corporations operating here.

"However, these generate intellectual property for their home countries using Indian technical expertise," Sibal said. "This indicates there is a huge revolution taking place in generating wealth for somebody else using Indian brainpower."

The national innovation system has to respond to this challenge in collaboration with the corporate sector, the minister said.

Underlining the importance of innovation, Malaysian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Dr. Jamaluddin Mohammad Jarjis said the knowledge economy is the driver of new initiatives, creativity, diffusion of technology, modernisation and technology for the people.

Stressing the need for integrated action focused on job creation and poverty reduction, Jarjis said: "The biotechnology initiative between India and ASEAN would help forge alliances in healthcare, environment, agriculture and energy.

"It can provide solutions but needs widespread public support," he added.

ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said innovation is a priority and this is where India can find advantage by helping the organisation's newly developing countries with its technology.

"We have 10 countries in ASEAN and in order to improve the lives of our people we need good proposals and a programme of action for the next five years," said Ong.

http://www.teluguportal.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=20462

Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu), Nov 6 (IANS) Fifteen years after that fateful Tuesday when former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi fell to a lurking assassin, Sriperumbudur has transformed into a technology hub with the biggest global names like Nokia, Flextronics and Hyundai setting up shop here.

Set among rice fields and wetlands, sleepy Sriperumbudur jumped on to the world map that night May 21, 1991, with the assassination here of Rajiv Gandhi, who many at that time thought was the future of India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi Saturday presided here over the rollout of Nokia's 20-millionth mobile instrument, which was made in its Indian facility here, located strategically on the Chennai-Bangalore highway 40 km from Chennai, on which stray cattle is a regular hazard.

Manmohan Singh, flanked by Michael McNamara and Peter Tan of Flextronics, said in the presence of Rajiv Gandhi's widow: 'I am sure you will join me in assuring her (Sonia) that we will all work together to take forward Rajiv ji's unfinished task of building a modern, truly liberated secular India.'

He said that Sriperumbudur should become a high-tech manufacturing 'center for modern technology and science' and that this was the right way for India to pay tribute to Rajiv Gandhi and his dream of a modern India.

In October 2003, when President A.P.J Abdul Kalam dedicated the Gandhi memorial to the nation, Sriperumbudur was just beginning to happen. Hyundai, Ford and St Gobain Glass were here.

In 2004, Rajiv's widow led the Congress party to a startling victory in parliamentary elections. Ever since, her United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has worked overtime to change the face of Sriperumbudur, that is only about 40 km from Chennai.

Motorola, Foxconn, BMW, Dell - everyone wants be here. It is the place where 40 percent of the FDI inflow into India (nearly $9 billion) this year came.

On Saturday, Singh inaugurated the Singapore-based Flextronics' Industrial Park at Sriperumbudur and also laid the foundation stone for the Rs.4.7-billion Global Automotive Research Centre at Oragadam, 15 km from here. At Oragadam, Singh said it is the 'beginning of a new chapter' in the history of the automotive industry in the country.

The centre will have state-of-the art infrastructure for automotive testing and homologation.

Mike Mcnamara, CEO of Flextronics, said the company had committed a total investment of $200 million in Tamil Nadu, spread over a period of five years. It had already lined up six customers and the maximum supply would be to Nokia at present.

Peter Tan, president and managing director of the Asia operations, said around 8,000 people would be employed per million square feet, which was the company's global benchmark and the new facility complements the company's other facilities across the world in Mexico, Brazil, two in China and one each in Hungary and Poland.

The company would initially manufacture cell phones. Manmohan Singh also visited the Nokia India factory at Sriperumbudur, which currently employs 3,600 people, as against the projected 2,000 in the beginning of the year.

It was, therefore, very significant that Saturday's trip to Tamil Nadu by both Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister was just confined to events in Sriperumbudur, and nowhere else. Nokia's India operations director Jukka Lehtela said here last week that the company hoped to create 50,000 jobs in three years in its Sriperumbudur plant.

'There is a need to focus on issues of power, water, housing, roads, environmental standards and compliance,' he warned. He said his company is facing 'difficulties in meeting its manufacturing schedules because of delays in the aviation services to Sriperumbudur'.

Nokia wants to make millions of cell phones here, while carmaker Hyundai wants to make 600,000 cars from its Sriperumbudur plant.

Saturday, while everyone listed the dollar value of the Sriperumbudur special economic zone, Sonia said, 'Sriperumbudur is full of painful memories for me' and for her children.

But she also said: 'Rajiv Gandhi did not love technology for technology's sake,' reminding her audience that 'he saw technology as a tool for social change', something that was now happening in the Tamil Nadu backwaters that was once nothing more than a Hindu pilgrim town of the Vaishnavite cult.

She warned that 'we have a long way to go to see that we bridge the digital divide', adding, 'we have to see that all regions of the country grow equally'.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/article_1218656.php/
Sriperumbudur_a_painful_memory_now_a_technology_hub

The Minister of Science and Technology at CII`s Technology Summit and Technology Platform said that we need an ASEAN Innovation Fund to foster collaboration that will help address common problems.

India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have to put in place a five-point programme to connect innovation with science and technology to make it locally relevant, said Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal, at the 12th Technology Summit and Technology Platform organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt of India. One highlight of this year's Technology Summit is that the ASEAN is the partner.

The programme includes building effective linkages between market & non-market forces and between science & business; stable markets without barriers; fostering collaboration between the private & public sectors; encouraging diffusion of technology to business and; facilitating the movement of people between institutions and across borders, said Minister Kapil Sibal.

The challenges facing the India plus ASEAN region are common, but too large to be faced singly, said Sibal. Governments need to be partners in this collaboration and have to be convinced that S&T has the potential to bring about change that is for the greater common good. "We need to collaborate, not compete, in science and technology."

The national innovation systems of India and ASEAN countries have to gear up to push R&D within the respective countries, society and industry, the Minister said. Each country has its own strengths in R&D and science that makes collaboration between them critical. "We need an ASEAN Innovation Fund to foster such collaboration in the region that will help address the problems common to the region."

Poverty and unemployment are two problems endemic to the south and south-east Asian region. "We have to innovate and create intellectual property for generating wealth and resolving local issues. We need local technical solutions that are affordable, accessible, indigenous and collaborative. These have to be ideal solutions for real life problems," Sibal said.

India has emerged as a global R&D hub, with more than 300 research centres owned by multinational corporations. However, these generate intellectual property for their home countries using Indian technical expertise. Sibal said, "This indicates there is a huge revolution taking place in generating wealth for somebody else using Indian brainpower." The national innovation system has to respond to this challenge in collaboration with the corporate sector.

The Minister stressed the importance of partnerships, that cover innovation, technology, IT, telecom and computing. They have changed the way companies manufacture and distribute products, manage their finances, business alliances and orders.

Underlining the importance of innovation in the knowledge economy, the Malaysian Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dato Sri Dr. Jamaluddin Mohammad Jarjis, said the knowledge economy is the driver of new initiatives, creativity, diffusion of technology, modernization and technology for the people.

However, India and ASEAN need to give more thought for integrated action focused on job creation and poverty reduction. "The Biotechnology Initiative between India and ASEAN would help forge alliances in healthcare, environment, agriculture and energy," he said. It can provide solutions but needs widespread public support.

ASEAN and India have common issues and are at different levels of economic development. While some have switched to a knowledge-based economy, others are still in the more traditional mould, Dato Jarjis said.

ASEAN is taking big strides in economic integration, and the countries expect to be integrated into a single market by 2020. This will enable the free flow of goods, services and investment capital, the Minister said. It considers free trade agreements with India as integral to this process. "A knowledge-based ASEAN economy will be able to achieve this much faster and more smoothly."

Signing a Memorandum of Understanding between CII and DST called Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA), Secretary, DST, Dr. T. Ramasami said this will be an agent of connectivity through CII to the world outside. "We hope to build partnerships with CII and deepen our collaboration. What we are looking at is ideal solutions to common problems through technology."

Stressing the need for collaboration between India and ASEAN, Secretary General of ASEAN, Ong Keng Yong said innovation is a priority and this is where India can find advantage, by helping ASEAN's newly developing countries with its technology. "We have 10 countries in ASEAN and in order to improve the lives of our people we need good proposals and a programme of action for the next five years."

http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=19275&lmn=1