India and US have signed a series of agreements on health, cooperation in areas such as cancer research, infrastructure development, training, capacity building and better assessment and application of new diagnostic technologies. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cancer Research and a Letter of Intent on Anti-microbial Resistance Research were signed by Secretary Health, B P Sharma, Secretary Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, K Vijay Raghavan, and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma.

Sharma and Verma also signed an MoU on collaboration in environmental and occupational health and injury prevention and control. Another agreement was signed between the CDC, DHHS (USA) and the ICMR (DHR) on collaboration in environmental and occupational health and injury prevention and control.

The agreement will also focus on public health effects of ambient and indoor air pollution including a focus on exposures associated with burning of solid fuels for cooking and heating, prevention of illness and injury related to hazards at the workplace and related research, planning, preparedness, and response for chemical releases and radiation events.