India, Japan sign MoU for expansion of biotech lab

New Delhi: India and Japan signed a MoU for expansion of an international laboratory set up for a collaborative research in the area of biotechnology.

The pact, signed on a day Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in India on a two-day, envisages the expansion of the laboratory set up by India's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology under the name of DAILAB.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is likely to be exchanged after the delegation-level talks between Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

DAILAB is located in Japan. The new center to come up after the pact will be called DAICENTER.

It will seek to enhance the level of joint research, training and networking programs that had been underway through DAILAB and its six ancillary institutes called Satellite International Institutes for Special Training, Education and Research (SISTERS) for the past three years.

It would also focus on connecting the academia to the industry and network innovation to entrepreneurship promoting science and technology relationships with the two countries.

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Secretary, K Vijayaraghavan, expressed hope that the expansion of the joint laboratory would help in pooling the resources of the two countries towards meeting the growing needs.