India, Brazil in pact for biotech research

NEW DELHI: India and Brazil have signed an agreement on a working plan for collaboration in various fields of biotechnology including agriculture, medicine and bio-informatics. Dr. Manju Sharma, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology and Vera Barrouin Machado, Ambassador of Brazil, signed the agreement in the presence of Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Minister for Science and Technology and Dr. Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg, Brazilian Minister for Science and Technology.

The two sides noted that biotechnology is a priority area for collaboration, as joint research in this field would be very beneficial not only to the two countries but also the humanity as a whole. In agricultural biotechnology, they would work for enhancing nutritional quality of crops especially maize and rice which are important for both the nations.

Joint projects would also be taken up in medicinal plants and biodiversity conservation including characterization of new genes and molecules. In the field of medical biotechnology, the focus would be on tropical diseases like dengue, malaria and tuberculosis. Brain research also forms another subject of collaboration besides bio-informatics and animal genomics.