India-US collaboration needed more than ever: Envoy
May 15, 2020  09:05
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The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of strong India-US collaboration, Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu has said. "COVID-19 has made us recognise the need for collaborations more than ever before. Our Prime Minister has emphasised a global coordinated response to deal with the challenges even as we work to strengthen our domestic capacities to deal with this crisis," Sandhu said during a virtual interaction with eminent Indian-American scientists on Thursday. 

Noting that India's partnership with the US in health sciences and technologies is longstanding, the diplomat said research and innovation institutions of both the countries have been engaged in understanding important chronic and infectious diseases and in developing therapeutics and diagnostics. 

India and the United States have closely collaborated in combating diseases such as tuberculosis; cancer; HIV; eye diseases and environmental health research, he said. There are over 200 ongoing NIH-funded projects in India, involving 20 Institutes from the NIH network and several eminent institutions in India. 


"A recent successful example of our co-operation is the development of the ROTAVAC against rota virus. Such collaborations will be critical in the fight against COVID-19," Sandhu said. 


"From the initial days of the outbreak, our scientists and institutions have been actively engaged in exchange of information. Even as both our countries are focused on combating the disease domestically, NIH and Indian Council for Medical Research have come together and announced a call to support collaborative research and training through India-US partnership to understand the disease," he said. 


The India-US Science and Technology Endowment Fund has called for proposals that would enable scientists to carry out joint research and work towards development of new technologies, tools, safety, outreach and also support public-private virtual networks to fight COVID-19, he added. -- PTI
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