North India Kaleidoscope Bureau

NEW DELHI:

The recent UK-India Policy dialogue was an opportunity to celebrate the rapid growth of the UK-India Science, Innovation and research relationship, which has grown from a joint investment of £1m in 2008 to £ 400 million by 2021.

The high-level UK-India science-policy dialogue was held in London on  April 23. It was co-chaired by Prof John Loughhead, Chief Scientific Adviser, UK Government’s Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

The dialogue brought together officials from India and the UK to discuss the future direction of collaborative work, to continue to support India and the UK’s joint goals and to follow up the joint announcements made during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the UK.

Prof John Loughhead said: “The India-UK research partnership has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Our biennial Science and Innovation Policy Dialogue is an excellent opportunity for us to ensure that our partnership continues to support research excellence in both countries”.

The five-member delegation also included Dr Parvinder Maini, Ministry of Earth Science, Mr S K Varshney, Department of Science and Technology, Dr Shailja Gupta, Department of Biotechnology and Mr Amit Sharma from Indian High Commission, London.

The Indian delegation also visited Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to discuss Neutron Science as well as the Alan Turing Institute where they discussed Big Data Analytics, IOT, AI, and machine learning.

The policy dialogue is a precursor to the biennial Science and Innovation Council Meeting which is co-chaired by Science Ministers of both India and the UK.

Further Information:

UK – India Science and Innovation Council (SIC), chaired by Science Ministers from the two countries, is held once every two years “to develop further a strategic science, technology and innovation bilateral relationship, and agree vehicles to enhance cooperation in areas of mutual interest”.  The SIC was created in keeping with the bilateral strategic partnership envisaged in the India-UK Joint Declaration ‘Towards the new and dynamic partnership’ signed by Prime Ministers of both countries in London in 2004.

The UK India Science and Innovation Policy Dialogue usually precedes the SIC and the discussions at this dialogue informs the Chairs of the SIC on updates since the last SIC and; New and Emerging areas for UK India collaborations.

Alex Cameron, Head of Communications

Press and Communications, British High Commission,

Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021