Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and a consortium of top UK research institutions signed an MoU for establishment of a joint India-UK collaboration programme in crop science. The aim of the agreement is to enhance collaborative research, promote knowledge exchange, and support capacity building to develop resilience in food security. This collaboration builds on the close links already established between leading researchers in the United Kingdom and India.

This collaboration will create opportunities for leading experts in the UK and India to come together to tackle global challenges in the areas of food security, crop science and biotechnology. All parties agreed on the importance of crop science as an area of enormous potential for scientific collaboration, and of great importance for global food security in India and beyond.

The agreement foresees joint projects focusing on the fundamental science underpinning yield enhancement, disease resistance and drought resistance; research into crop re-breeding; and the translation of fundamental research into sustainable agriculture practice. It also contemplates the establishment of a joint Indo-UK Plant Science Centre in India.

Did You Know???

• Slavery was not made a statutory offense in the UK until April 6,2010.
• The death penalty was outlawed in the UK partly because a man was wrongfully executed for the murder of his wife and daughter in 1950.
• US eggs are illegal in Britain because they are washed. British eggs are illegal in the US because they are not.
• Concentration camps were first used by the British during the Second Anglo-Boer War.