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Allegre's visit will boost Indo-French ties

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

With agreements to set up nearly half a dozen joint research centres and laboratories, Indo-French relations in the field of education, science and technology are set to receive a major boost. The agreements will be formalised when the French minister for Education, Research and Technology Claude Allegre arrives in New Delhi on Thursday night on a three-day visit.

Allegre is coming armed with a large number of Memoranda of Understanding that will set the tone for greater cooperation between India and France in these fields. ''It is a multi-purpose visit and shows the continued commitment of the French government, fully reciprocated by the Indian government, to move forward in a variety of areas, ranging from economics to science and education,'' Kanwal Sibal, the Indian ambassador to France, told rediff.com here recently.

On Friday, Allegre will inaugurate the Water Week, a string of exhibitions and seminars where the leading French water management companies will display their expertise in the field. Later in the day, Allegre will also inaugurate the Second Exposition by French universities and colleges to attract Indian students to France. On Saturday, Allegre will visit New Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology where he will preside over the signing of two MOUs.

One is a three-way MoU between IIT, Delhi, Bourdeaux University and the European Automation Laboratory for creation of an Indo-French laboratory for information technology. The other MoU to be signed with the IIT, New Delhi, is the proposal to set up two professorial chairs in IIT and the Tolouse science university, which will enable an exchange of faculty between these two acknowledged centres of scientific excellence.

On Saturday, Allegre will also participate in the Ministerial Conference on Spatial Technology in the Asia-Pacific region, being organised by the Indian government at New Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan. Later in the day, Allegre will sign two letters of intent with his Indian counterpart, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development Murli Manohar Joshi for setting up two joint research labs in the field of laser physics and geophysics.

Reaching Bangalore on November 21, Allegre will sign another string of MOUs. One will be regarding a Joint Satellite Mission to monitor tropical climate. The mission will be executed jointly by the French space company, CNES and the Indian Space Research Organisation. Allegre will also sign an MoU to set up a joint water treatment and management laboratory in India.

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