India-U.S. Relations: Science & Technology

&T cooperation between India and USA Is char-

acterized by over five decades of successful

and productive exchange of scientists and scientific

ideas, joint/collaborative research projects, training/

fellowship programs and technology transfer in vir-
tually all areas of Science & Technology.

In the late 1950's, Indian and American scientists
began to collaborate on agricultural research. This
activity was expanded in the 1960's into other fields
of science and education.

Visible Institutional Symbols:

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, an inter-
nationally renowned institute for technical education
and research, was set up with U.S. cooperation.

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, which
played a pivotal role in India’s green revolution in
1960's, successful collaboration with Ohio State
University, USA.

The National Council of Educational Research and
Training (NCERT)-an apex body for education-was
set up with American collaboration.

Some Milestones:

1974: The S&T Sub-commission was established
within the Indo-US Joint Commission on Economics
and Commerce, Science & Technology, Education &
Culture, and Agriculture. The S&T Sub-Commission
had seven Working Groups in different areas: Material
& Physical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Atmospheric &
Marine Sciences, Energy, Environment Ecology, Infor-
mation S&T, Health, Medical and Life Sciences.

1983: A new fast track cooperation program, the S&T
Initiative (STI), was established to enhance coopera-
tion in areas of agriculture, health, monsoon research,
biomass research and engineering, and solid state
sciences, The National Science Foundation (NSF), USA
and the Department of Science & Technology (DST),
India, were the nodal agencies in implementing the
program, which operated on cost sharing basis. The
U.S. side unilaterally discontinued the program in 1991.

1987: The U.S.-India Fund (USEF) was established to
carryout joint activities such as workshops exchange
of scientists and experts, joint research programs in
fields of educational, cultural and sciences. USIF was

initially set up for ten years but was extended by a
year. The Indian scientific community benefited from
this program, with more than 50 workshops and about
140 joint scientific projects. As of December 1998,
there were more than 200 ongoing projects with cu-
mulative cost of Rs. 645 million.

1987: An MOU is signed for the Vaccine Action Pro-
gram under the Health, Medical and Life Sciences
Working Group of the U.S.-India S&T Sub-Commis-
sion. The program is now in its third phase, and is
extended until 2002. The last meeting of the Joint
Working Group was held in July 2000, in Washington,
DC to identify the focus areas for further research in
vaccine development and allied areas. A similar pro-
gram exists on cooperation on contraceptive and re-
productive health research.

1991: The S&T fellowship program supported by U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID) and
Department of Science & Technology, Government of
India. Under this program 70 Indian scientists spent 3-
12 months in the USA and 10 US scientists came to
India. The program continued till 1994.

1993: Indo-U.S. S&T agreement is proposed but could
not be signed due to differences over intellectual prop-
erty rights provisions.

1997: The Vaccine Action Program is extended up to
2002.

1997: A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for
scientific cooperation in the area of Earth and Atmo-
spheric Sciences was signed between the Department
of Space (DOS) and the Department of Science and
Technology (DST) of the Government of India and the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration (NOAA) of the United States on December 16,
1997.

Specific areas of cooperation include weather analysis
and forecasting techniques; satellite product develop-
ment for atmospheric, land and ocean parameters,
applications to flood forecasting and drought monitor-
ing.

The MOU provides for exchange of data and derived
products between the two countries from Indian
National Satellite (INSAT) as well as Geostationary

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