India US to sign Artemis accords (GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the American space agency NASA will sign the Artemis Accords during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States.
- The new agreement aims to boost cooperation between the two countries and explore the domain beyond the boundaries of Earth.
What are the Artemis Accords?
- The Artemis Accords are part of the Artemis program, a mega initiative undertaken by NASA to return humans to the Moon. The program aims to build a permanent presence in the lunar orbit and on the surface, over half a century after the Apollo missions ended.
- The Accords comprise a set of principles governing international cooperation in space exploration. The multilateral arrangement aims to ultimately make humans an interplanetary species as they venture on to Mars.
- The signing means that India and the US will share data, technology, and resources, and work together to ensure the safety and sustainability of lunar exploration.
Member countries:
- As of now, 23 countries, excluding India, have signed the accords. These countries include Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Why is this a big deal for India?
- The agreement between India and the US is significant as it comes on the heels of the Indian space agency planning to launch the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon.
- The two countries have already been cooperating on lunar missions; however, it has largely remained limited to sharing knowledge. The new accord will ensure resource sharing as well.
- ISRO and NASA are already working on a joint project to study natural hazards, melting sea ice, groundwater supply, and other environmental factors that contribute to the rising pace of climate change across the world.
- The Nasa-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) arrived in India earlier this year and will launch on the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II (GSLV-MkII) rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre into a near-polar Earth orbit in 2024.
Future Prospects:
- While India and the US have agreed on sending Indian astronauts to the International Space Station, it will still take some time. However, the more immediate benefit will be sharing information on human spaceflight.
- India is in the midst of training its first batch of astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission, and this new cooperation could further help in strengthening the curriculum, facilities, and training designs.
- With NASA planning to launch the first crew of four astronauts into lunar orbit with Artemis-II next year and land humans on the lunar surface by 2025, the signing of the agreement will establish India as a major recipient of information from the mission.
Way Forward:
- The new agreement will push India further into the new world order that is looking beyond the orbit of Earth as it explores the cosmos and continues to find its place in the ever-expanding universe.
India, US to enhance tech commerce; to focus on semiconductor, telecom
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- Recently, a joint statement was released by the Indian Prime Minister and US President in the US.
Key Highlights:
- Both governments have committed to promote policies and adapt regulations to facilitate greater technology sharing, co-development, and co-production opportunities between US and Indian industry, government, and academic institutions.
- India and US have signed multiple pacts to push bilateral commerce, technology transfer, joint development of technologies in the area of semiconductor, 5G and 6G telecom and open source based telecom network, quantum and high performance computing etc. as both nations enhance commitment towards trusted network and supply chain ecosystem.
New engagements:
- The hailed the signing of an MoU on Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership as a significant step in the coordination of our countries' semiconductor incentive programs.
- They welcomed computer memory chip maker Micron Technology's announcement to set up a semiconductor assembly and test facility in Gujarat entailing an investment of USD 2.75 billion with support from the Indian government. The plant is expected to create up to 5,000 new direct and 15,000 community jobs opportunities in next five years.
- They welcomed Lam Research's proposal to train 60,000 Indian engineers through its Semiverse Solution virtual fabrication platform to accelerate India's semiconductor education and workforce development goals, and an announcement by Applied Materials Inc, to invest USD 400 million to establish a collaborative engineering centre in India.
Joint task forces on advanced telecommunications:
- With the vision of creating secure and trusted telecommunications, resilient supply chains, and enabling global digital inclusion, they launched two joint task forces on advanced telecommunications, focused on Open RAN and research and development in 5G/6G technologies.
- Public-private cooperation between vendors and operators will be led by India's Bharat 6G Alliance and the U.S. Next G Alliance.
- They di emphasised on the need to put in place a "Trusted Network" and "Trusted Sources" bilateral framework.
- They committed to develop joint and international collaboration on trustworthy and responsible AI, including generative AI, to advance AI education and workforce initiatives, promote commercial opportunities, and mitigate against discrimination and bias.
- India and US have set up a joint Indo-US. Quantum Coordination Mechanism for collaboration among industry, academia, and governments. It will work towards a comprehensive Quantum Information Science and Technology agreement between the two countries.
US-India Science and Technology Endowment fund:
- They welcomed the launch of a USD 2-million grant programme under the US-India Science and Technology Endowment fund for the joint development and commercialization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies, and encouraged public-private collaborations to develop high performance computing (HPC) facilities in India.
- As part of the collaboration, the US side has pledged to make its best efforts in support of India's Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) joining the US Accelerated Data Analytics and Computing (ADAC) Institute.
Joint research collaborations:
- US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) are jointly funding 35 innovative joint research collaborations in emerging technologies.
- Under a new implementation arrangement between NSF and DST, both sides will fund joint research projects in computer and information science and engineering, cyber physical systems, and secure and trustworthy cyberspace.
- Furthermore, NSF and India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will bring fresh funding for joint projects in applied research areas such as semiconductors, next generation communication, cyber security, sustainability and green technologies and intelligent transportation systems.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI):
- The United States and India will explore ways to partner align efforts to advance the development and deployment of robust Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), including appropriate safeguards to protect privacy, data security and intellectual property.
- India has developed a unique ID Aadhaar, unified payment interface to lower and ease financial transactions, CoWin platform to facilitate vaccination etc as part of DPI.
US-India Global Digital Development Partnership:
- The US and India will explore developing a US-India Global Digital Development Partnership to bring together technology and resources from both countries to enable development and deployment of DPIs in developing countries, the statement said.
Medicines Patent Pool deal to make cancer drug cheaper
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- In a move that will make certain cancer drugs more accessible and cheaper for patients, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has signed sub-licence agreements with the India-based companies Eugia, Hetero and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, along with the Indonesian firm BrightGene, to make generic versions of the drug Nilotinib of the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical corporation Novartis.
Drug Nilotinib:
- The drug is used for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia, a type of blood cancer.
- Nilotinib is sold under the brand name Tasigna and marketed worldwide by Novartis.
Highlights of MoU:
- The selected manufacturers can make generic versions of Nilotinib in India and seven middle-income countries.
- They can also supply it in 44 territories included in the licence through a non-exclusive licence agreement, subject to local regulatory authorisation.
- The licence includes the opportunity to develop and supply generic versions of Nilotinib in seven middle-income countries.
About Medicines Patent Pool (MPP):
- It is a United Nations-backed group working towards increasing access to, and facilitating the development of, life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries.
- MPP was established in 2010 by Unitaid. I.
Mandate:
- MPP’s mandate is to accelerate access to affordable quality treatments for people living with HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis, as well as HIV-associated co-morbidities.
- Since 2018, MPP has expanded its mandate to other patented essential medicines on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) as well as medicines with strong potential for future inclusion on the EML.
- In 2020, MPP temporarily expanded it’s mandate to include COVID-19 treatments.
- In 2021, MPP expanded its mandate into the licensing of technology with an initial focus on COVID-19 vaccines and pandemic preparedness.
