Indo-Canada to sign S&T agreement
India and Canada will sign a comprehensive agreement on science and technology later this year to give a boost to the research activities taking place in both countries and to help the transfer of technologies. Announcing this at a joint press conference with the Minister of Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, the Canadian High Commissioner to India, Lucie Edwards said her country would sign such an ‘umbrella agreement’ for the first time in 25 years.
The collaborations this year will focus on five themes – Earth Sciences and Disaster Mitigation, Environmental and Climate Change Technologies and Alternative Fuels, Information and Communications Technology, Nano-technology and Nano-science, Biotechnology, Health Research and Medical Devices. She also disclosed that the recently released Canadian International Policy Statement “paid significant attention to India as well as Science and Technology and suggested key initiatives to support partnerships in this sector with key markets, like India”.
Mr Sibal announced that Canada will be the partner country in this year’s Technology Summit and Technology Platform to be held in New Delhi from September 21-22.

FDI to accelerate mapping in India
The Indian Govt. is going to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the GIS and aerial mapping sectors to prepare an exhaustive database for the entire country. Union Minister of State for Science, Technology and Ocean Development, Kapil Sibal said that opening the sector for FDI would help speed up the area mapping work in the country.
‘‘The map database, being prepared by using GIS, would help tackle future challenges more effectively and improve India’s performance in areas like agriculture and infrastructure,’’ said Sibal. http://cities.expressindia.com