Ministers discuss collaborative possibilities in science and education

Dr Ashwani Kumar meets French Minister for Higher Education Laurent Wauquiez, India’s Union Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Ashwani Kumar, recently met with French Minister for Higher Education Mr. Laurent Wauquiez in Paris, to discuss developing further the existing good bilateral cooperation in the area of Science and Technology (S&T).

Dr Ashwani Kumar stated that cooperation in new areas where France has expertise like geological mapping, water resource management, sub soil management, health, bio technology, nano material, Information Communication Technology, cloud computing and supercomputing could be explored. The Minister further underlined the need for commercialiing technology and translating research into the well-being of the society. He also extended an invitation to his counterpart for the launching of the 25th Anniversary celebrations of CEFIPRA.

The French Minister expressed satisfaction at the level of S&T cooperation and conveyed that India was a key partner for France in university cooperation and also stressed the need to develop cooperation in higher education and scientific research. This he suggested could be done by setting up working groups that could focus on these areas and prepare a roadmap.