The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : France backs India-U.S. N-deal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

France backs India-U.S. N-deal

Staff Reporter

‘It’s a good thing for India and a good thing for the world’

BANGALORE: Backing the India-U.S. nuclear deal, the visiting French Minister for Higher Education and Research, Valerie Pecresse, on Saturday said his country could begin civil atomic cooperation only after India’s agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

India would also have to secure an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), she said.

Speaking to presspersons here, Ms. Pecresse said the French Government required an international legal framework to start the cooperation. But she was clear that the Indo-American deal would be a “good thing for India and a good thing for the world.”

The nuclear choice would allow consolidation of the economic growth and sustainable development as nuclear energy produced less greenhouse gases, she noted.

France, the Minister said, had mooted the establishment of an Indo-French Virtual Centre of Water Sciences in India.

This proposal was backed by Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal during her meeting with him in New Delhi.

Ms. Pecresse said the centre would be a virtual network of cells and projects dealing with technologies on water pollution, and was likely to be launched in January 2008. “Mr. Sibal spoke strongly about the water pollution problem in India. France could extend its technological know-how towards solving this. This could be the beginning of something bigger,” she noted.

The two countries, she said, was also expected to sign a deal in January to establish three international joint laboratories.

While a lab on neuro sciences would come up in New Delhi through a collaboration between the French INSERM institute and the Indian Government’s Department of Biotechnology, two laboratories were proposed to be set up in Bangalore, one related to nano sciences and another on organic chemistry.

On boosting Indo-French relationship in academics, Ms. Pecresse said the French Government hoped to attract more Indian students to France by the recent legislation permitting international students to work part-time, and the English courses launched in French universities to help students overcome the language barrier.

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