India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T

 India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 2: International Relation- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

 India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T in News

• Recently, India-Norway Joint Working Group on S&T discussed the extension of S&T co-operation to new areas between the two countries.
• Ms Anne Line Wold, Director General, Ministry of Education and research who headed the delegation from the Norway side underlined that India is among the 9 priority countries outside Europe in S&T co-operation for Norway.
  • He further emphasized on strengthening co-operation on priority areas like ocean, health, energy, climate and security.

 India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T

• About: The Indo-Norwegian S&T Cooperation was formalized through an Inter-governmental agreement signed in Tromso, Norway in 2006 and was activated through a Programme of Cooperation (POC) signed in Oslo in May 2009.
• Functioning: A Joint Working Group constituted under the framework of Inter-Governmental agreement met for 6 times so far, alternately in India and Norway.
• Participation: The representatives from the Scientific and Education Ministries as well as the Ministry of External Affairs of India and their counterparts from Norway participated in the India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T.
• Significance: India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T meeting would expand to the areas of increasing relevance like green hydrogen, anti-microbial resistance, renewable energy and so on.

Key Outcome of India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T

• Expansion of S&T co-operation between the two countries to include areas like
  • Quantum science and technology,
  • Electric mobility,
  • Green hydrogen,
  • Ocean science,
  • Cyber-physical system,
  • Blue economy,
  • Information and communication technology
• Strengthening existing areas of co-operation like-
  • Polar sciences,
  • Bio-economy,
  • Renewable energy,
  • Nano-science and technology and
  • Anti-microbial resistance
• The meeting decided on furthering activities like-
  • Bilateral workshops,
  • Support for on-going joint research projects,
  • New joint R & D Project call with industry participation,
  • Human capacity development,
  • Focusing on areas which has more relevance or impact to society as well as industrial R & D programmes

 Importance of India- Norway Joint Working Group on S&T

The co-operation will help in-

• Enhancing quality and relevance of R&D,
• Technology translation,
• Taking it to market,
• Connecting industry, Startups, MSMEs to R&D Labs and academia,
• Societal connect,
• Science for people,
• Diversity  and inclusion (Youth, Women, Rural, SC/ST),
• Aligning S & T with national priorities, water, energy, environment, transport, health,  manufacturing, waste processing and so on.

About Nordic Countries

• About: The Nordic Countries are a group of five countries in northern Europe. These five Nordic countries are Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland.
• Political System: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are constitutional monarchies and parliamentary democracies. Finland and Iceland are democratic republics.
  • Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, is the oldest parliament in the world.
• Population: Sweden is the largest and most populous of the Nordic countries. Iceland is the least populous. Denmark is the smallest.
• Economic strength: Nordic countries collectively represent an economy of more than $1.6 trillion.
• India-Nordic Countries Trade Balance: Total bilateral trade in goods and services between India and the Nordic countries is $13 billion.

2nd India-Nordic Summit

2nd India-Nordic Summit

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