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The 5th ASEAN India Joint Cooperation Meeting was
held in New Delhi on April 22- 23, 2003. Earlier the
6th ASEAN India Working Group meeting was held in
New Delhi on February 6-7, 2003. A series of decisions
were taken at the Working Level Group meeting and
subsequently endorsed by the JCC meeting.
While reviewing the activities under the aegis of
ASEAN India Cooperation, particularly with regard
to S&T, the following views were taken in respect
of the identified topics. These include:
· INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, in which it was
said that a senior level IT Mission from ASEAN would
visit to develop a medium term programme on IT in
consultation with the Deptt. of Information Technology,
as recommended by the 6th ASEAN India Working Group.
· BIOTECHNOLOGY, to present a proposal for
the establishment of ASEAN India Biotechnology Network
incorporating the recommendations made by ASEAN Standing
Committee, and including a component of CLME capacity
building. Department of Biotechnology is in the process
of preparing a brief proposal for being conveyed to
ASEAN Side.
· SPACE TECHNOLOGY, to cover the aspects relating
to remote sensing and use of IRS data. ISRO is directly
in touch with MEA to develop such a proposal.
· ADVANCE MATERIALS, covering two projects
relating to SURFACE ENGINEERING and NdFeB Magnets.
In both these cases and on the basis of the recommendations
made by PAC on Material Sciences, it was conveyed
that Phase II of the project would commence after
necessary commercial viability has been assessed.
It was said that while a Joint Workshop will be held
in the area of Surface Engineering, detailed market
study would be undertaken by TIFAC with respect to
NdFeB Magnets.
· DIGITAL LIBRARY, a new proposal mooted at
the behest of ASEAN side at the Working Level Group
meeting. A detailed project was prepared by IIIT,
Allahabad and was presented at the JCC meeting. The
project entails visit of a scientific mission to ASEAN
Secretariat (Jakarta) and view Member States to understand
the requirements further leading to organization of
a joint workshop on Digital Library in India to develop
joint R&D projects. DST to implement the project.
· TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT, following the ASEAN
India Workshop on Technology Development and Management,
TIFAC has been identified to translate the recommendations
into specific action points in consultation with ASEAN
with a main objective to develop project proposal
for future activities in accordance with the decisions
taken at the Working Level Group Meeting. These cover:
1. Technology Scan Mechanisms
2. S&T Networking
3. R&D in application on strategic and enabling
technologies.
4. Programme Management and revenue generation.
One significant development has been to bring the
level of working group with Secretary (DST) as the
Co-Chairman. It was also agreed that the DST would
now act as the focal point (in place of TIFAC) mainly
with a view to streamline the procedures. It was felt
that the present arrangement with TIFAC as the focal
point has not met with the desired objectives.
Another important development was that AIWGST meet
annully instead of bienniually. The Working Level
Group meeting and the JCC meeting requested the ASEAN
Secretariat to advice ASEAN-COST of the recommendations
and propose the necessary revisions to the TOR of
the AIWGST, as well as a possible reconsideration
of the schedule of next AIWGST meeting. The meeting
also suggested that in respect of any future Joint
R&D Projects that were cost shared, a top down
approach in the setting of financial commitment be
considered by the cooperating parties. This could
be taken up in the next meeting of the AIWGST.
For further details, please contact:
On India side
1. CR MURTY, Director/ Scientist’F’
International Division, Department of Science &
Technology (DST)
Technology Bhawan, New Delhi-110016
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