India to host five BRICS S&T events through 2022

New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) Even as India has successfully handed over the BRICS Chair to China from January 2022, it will be hosting five international events through the year, it was decided at the 15th meeting of the BRICS Science Technology Innovation (STI) Steering Committee.

BRICS STI is a forum for the scientific community from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to discuss and deliberate on topics of common interest in the field of science and technology.

The calendar of BRICS STI activities and expected deliverables were discussed at the meeting organised virtually on Monday, a release from the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Tuesday.

The five high-level events that India will host are: BRICS Startups Forum’s Working Groups meeting on Energy; Biotechnology & Biomedicine; ICT & High-Performance Computing and the STIEP (Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Partnership) Working Group Meeting, which will also witness the launch of BRICS innovation launchpad as a microsite (Knowledge Hub).

The BRICS STI Steering Committee meeting was attended by representatives from BRICS scientific ministries and foreign missions. The Indian delegation was led by Sanjeev Kumar Varshney, Advisor and Head, International Cooperation, Department of Science and Technology, the release said.

The Chinese side presented a broad outline of activities to be carried out during the entire year, which would mainly include thematic meetings, BRICS Young Scientist Conclave, senior official and ministerial-level meetings.

A total of 25 events have been planned, of which India will host five. The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is the main executing agency for the BRICS Startups Forum and creation of innovation Knowledge Hub.

The BRICS Young Scientist Conclave will be held in September 2022 in a virtual format, and thematic focus areas will possibly be carbon peak neutralisation, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, material science and modern agriculture.

China has proposed to host the 10th BRICS S&T ministerial-level meeting and the Senior Official Meeting in September 2022. On the sidelines of the ministerial meeting, an exhibition will be organised to showcase the outcomes of successful projects supported under the BRICS Framework Programme (2015-2022).

–IANS

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