India and the United Kingdom will jointly create a “NET Zero” Innovation Virtual Centre.
Announcing this while chairing the India-UK Science & Innovation Council meeting in the presence of his British counterpart George Freeman, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said today that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India was fast-moving to become an economic powerhouse, driven by its extraordinary technological and innovative capabilities which the whole world has begun to acknowledge, particularly after the Covid vaccine success story.
The two leaders called for enhanced science and technology cooperation between India and the United Kingdom.
Chairing the meet, Dr Jitendra Singh said that India was on the fast track-move and was determined to achieve its climate change and environmental targets on time.
He highlighted the close collaboration between the two countries strengthened through an ambitious ‘Roadmap 2030’ that provides a framework for UK-India relations across health, climate, trade, education, science and technology, and defence sectors.
The Indian Minister informed his British counterpart that under Modi, the UK has emerged as India’s second-largest international research and innovation partner. The India-UK Science & Technology (S&T) collaboration has been growing at a rapid pace and the joint research programme has gone from an almost zero base to close to £300-400 million now, he said.
Both the Ministers appreciated the proposal to create an India-UK “NET Zero” Innovation Virtual Centre which will provide a platform to bring stakeholders from both countries together to work in some of the focus areas, including the Decarbonisation of manufacturing process & transport systems and Green Hydrogen as a renewable source.
Dwelling on the issue of India’s net zero journey, Dr Jitendra Singh said, energy efficiency and renewable energy are central pillars, where India has already taken the lead through various initiatives like India Solar Alliance, Clean energy mission etc.
He said that during the last 75 years, India has gone through an evolutionary journey that helped us to carve an economic and political identity amidst the global nations. Today when India was celebrating the 75th year of its Independence, the roadmap for the next 25 years for India @100, would be determined by scientific and technological innovations in all walks of life, he said.