Bangalore: Partnership between India and the United Kingdom, in frontline areas of science and technology, is likely to see a ramp-up in the coming months.

An India-U.K. Science and Innovation Council, with participation from the Prime Minister's Science Advisory Council and the U.K.'s Global Science and Innovation Forum will get down to work after meeting for the first time in Britain in June. This mechanism will serve as the high-tech clearing house for joint efforts in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials research and mobile communication.

Speaking to The Hindu here at the end of a weeklong India visit, U.K. Minister for Science and Innovation Lord Sainsbury said the two countries were aiming at a new "relationship based on innovation." The ``very exciting developments in biopharma'' he saw in India could be a taste of the promise that lies in the broader biotech area.

Among the Bangalore-based companies Lord Sainsbury visited are the research centre of the U.K.-based AstraZeneca, which is working on treatment of tuberculosis; the Indian firm Avestha Gengraine, first biotech player to invest in the U.K.; and the bio-pharmaceutical company, Biocon. He also visited the National Centre for Biological Sciences.

To gauge the opportunity in information technology, he visited HCL and Infosys.

Aerospace and micro-nanotechnology are two other areas in which Lord Sainsbury sees potential for mutually beneficial linkages.

After a visit to the Indian Institute of Science, he said: "The traffic should be in both directions" even in educational areas. "Over 17,000 Indian students study in the U.K. but there are less than a hundred British students in Indian institutions."

A newly created U.K.-India Educational and Research Initiative, which has received £10 million in seed funding from the British Government (to be matched by an equal amount from industry), is expected to increase the opportunities for Indian students. It is also likely to see increased numbers of U.K. students supported to join leading Indian centres of academia.

Like the year-old India-U.K. Joint Economic and Trade Committee, which is tailored to the needs of industry, hard-nosed commercial objectives underpin the latest scientific partnership.

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