'Role of science, tech critical in facing challenges like Covid'

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on his first foreign visit since the outbreak of COVID-19 to Bangladesh on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Country's independence. India and Bangladesh have been long standing development partners and the Prime Ministerial visit underlines the importance both nations accord to each other.

Both countries, today share the common goal of greater investments in science, technology and innovation particularly for a post-pandemic economic revival. Bilateral technological partnerships are critical to address common development challenges and achieve socio-economic growth in the region.

One such partnership success that coincides with the PM's visit is under the Millennium Alliance (MA) Program. The MA is a partnership between India's Department of Science and Technology (DST), USAID and the UK Government. While DST and USAID support scale up of innovations within India, the UK Government supports scaling up of Indian innovations in developing countries across Africa and South Asia.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Alliance announced a special call to fund and support Indian innovations tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Govt of India stated, "Science, technology and innovation plays an increasingly critical role when the world is faced with unprecedented challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian Government, industry and startups responded quickly by developing targeted predictive, preventive and curative technologies and solutions to fight the pandemic."