India and the US signed an umbrella Science and Technology agreement Monday as part of the series of pacts aimed at bringing the two countries together in areas such as health, space and information technology.
It was signed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and India's Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal.
The agreement is aimed at expanding collaboration in basic sciences, space, energy, nanotechnology, health and information technology, a State Department fact sheet pointed out.
"The purpose of the agreement is to strengthen the science and technology capabilities of the US and India, expand relations between the extensive scientific and technological communities of both countries and promote technological and scientific cooperation in areas of mutual benefit," it said.
Rice called the pact "another dramatic illustration of the fast-growing bilateral relationship we are building between the United States and India."
Sibal said, "This is indeed a very historic occasion. It is indeed a milestone 15 long years after negotiations."
Negotiations for the agreement had begun as early as 1993, the fact sheet pointed out. The two countries had sought a bilateral science and technology agreement but the negotiations failed because the two parties could not agree on intellectual property rights provisions.
Since then the Indian Parliament has strengthened the IPR law in India and "the US and India realise that the current relationship between our two countries and the extensive growth in technological capabilities made a science and technology agreement (now) imperative," the fact sheet said.
Rice pointed out that the agreement opens the door to a wide range of scientific and technical cooperation between the "two great democracies." She lauded Sibal for making the agreement possible, saying "without your personal involvement, we would not be here today."
Both Rice and Sibal referred to the natural disasters both suffered and their mutual help --Katrina in the US and the tsunami and earthquake in India.
Among those present at the ceremony were Ambassador Ronen Sen, Deputy Chief of Mission Raminder Singh Jassal and Undersecretary of State Paula Dobrianski, who described it as yet another milestone in the growing Indo-US relationship.
The new agreement for the first time establishes intellectual property right protocols and other provisions necessary to conduct active collaborative research.
Scientific and economic links between India and the US have remained strong since the early 1960s, first in agriculture, and then spreading into a broad range of areas involving more of the US government technical agencies.
The new science and technology agreement will complement the activity of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum established in 2000 by facilitating follow-on technical collaborations.
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