New Delhi, Nov 1: India and South Africa have expressed keenness to work together in the field of science and development of HIV AIDS vaccine.
This came up during 3rd BRICS of Science and Technology Ministerial Meeting held in Moscow recently in October. The two sides held bilateral discussions on all the projects.
South African Minister Naledi Pandore desired that India may also help the country especially in Space Science, Agriculture and food security and in converting of Pharma based indigenous knowledge into wealth.
India’s Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Science, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India will be happy to collaborate with South Africa in these areas. He said the present Indian government, has created The Ministry of AYUSH in 2014 for providing better health-care to the public. This will also help in upgrading the educational standards in Indian Systems of Medicines and Homoeopathy colleges in the country; Strengthen existing research institutions and ensure a time-bound research programme on identified diseases for which these systems have an effective treatment. He assured South African Minister, that he will help in building the linkages between two sides in this area.
For India- South Africa collaboration in Space Science, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India had launched the ASTROSAT satellite for space probe and India will be happy to provide necessary assistance to South Africa. ASTROSAT is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. It was launched on a PSLV-XL on 28 September 2015. Further, he said that, Ministry of Earth Sciences is providing farmers centric information using modern tool and techniques which has helped the farmers and helped in crore of rupees being saved. He said, India has a number of international collaborations in earth sciences centric research and services projects and India would be happy to help South Africa too in this area.
