London: Britain on Thursday said the proposed
civil nuclear deal with India is a big step forward as it
offers a "huge opportunity" for both countries to further
their bilateral ties.
"This is a huge opportunity for both countries as we
have significant expertise in this field and India has an
ambitious programme," said Britain`s Minister for Business,
Innovation and Skills Pat McFadden.
He said India has approved the UK-India Civil Nuclear
deal but a date for signing the accord is yet to be decided.
"I am sure the agreement will be a big step forward
for us to be able to work together in this very important
area," Pat McFadden told agency in an interview on the eve of his
week-long visit to India.
India and the UK agreed on the text of a civil nuclear
deal during the visit of Commerce Minister Anand Sharma here
in the early this month.
McFadden, had played a significant role as a speech
writer and policy adviser to the Labour leader John Smith and
as Political Secretary to former Prime Minister Tony Blair
before he joined the Gordon Brown Cabinet in 2007.
He said he planned to sign a MoU later this week in
New Delhi on "Data on Changing Water Cycle" which is an issue
of concern in different ways to both countries.
McFadden said that "India, of course, depends on
monsoon for much of its agriculture and here in Britain too we
have water problems - floods in the recent years and there is
real common scientific interest in understanding data on
changing water cycle.
We will have a document to sign on that."
McFadden who leaves for Delhi tomorrow, said the focus
during his visit would be on Science and Education where there
was great potential for joint collaboration.
He said he would take part in a Joint UK-India Science
Conference with India`s Science and Technology Minister
Prithviraj Chavan in New Delhi on Saturday.
At the end of the conference a Joint Statement would
be issued, he said. The same day he would visit the University
of Delhi.
On Monday he would travel to Chandigarh where he
would meet the Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and attend
"some constituency-related engagements in Chandigarh.
He said in his constituency in Wolverhampton South
East there are sizeable number of NRIs, mostly from Punjab.
On Tuesday, he would visit IIT Ropar.
"Really the focus of my trip is Science and
Education Collaboration." McFadden said India and UK both have
a great thirst for knowledge. "We have a very high quality
world class education and scientific research base.
India too has enormous expertise in this area and
through the conference both the Governments hope to give
energy and drive to the scientific collaborations between
institutions in UK and India."
McFadden said that "India, of course, depends on
monsoon for much of its agriculture and here in Britain too we
have water problems - floods in the recent years and there is
real common scientific interest in understanding data on
changing water cycle.
We will have a document to sign on that."
McFadden who leaves for Delhi tomorrow, said the focus
during his visit would be on Science and Education where there
was great potential for joint collaboration.
He said he would take part in a Joint UK-India Science
Conference with India`s Science and Technology Minister
Prithviraj Chavan in New Delhi on Saturday.
At the end of the conference a Joint Statement would
be issued, he said. The same day he would visit the University
of Delhi.
On Monday he would travel to Chandigarh where he
would meet the Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and attend
"some constituency-related engagements in Chandigarh.
He said in his constituency in Wolverhampton South
East there are sizeable number of NRIs, mostly from Punjab.
On Tuesday, he would visit IIT Ropar.
"Really the focus of my trip is Science and
Education Collaboration." McFadden said India and UK both have
a great thirst for knowledge. "We have a very high quality
world class education and scientific research base.
India too has enormous expertise in this area and
through the conference both the Governments hope to give
energy and drive to the scientific collaborations between
institutions in UK and India."
"He has got real ambitions for expanding both
quantity and quality of Indian education. This is the natural
resources of 21st century.
The scale of India`s higher education is very
ambitious. At the moment there are 26 million students in
higher education but Government hopes it goes up to 60 to 70
million in ten years.
That would mean hundreds of institutions.
Here in the UK we have gone through significant
expansion of our educational institutions in the last 10
years.
We have established new institutions and expanded
the existing ones."
He said there was great potential for institutional
collaboration to help in the expansion of educational
institutions in India, at the same time ensuring that they are
well managed in such a way that both the country and the young
people in India got the most benefit from.
"We are very keen to work with Indian institutions to
share our expertise, having gone through higher education
expansion, may be in a small scale," he said.
PTI
