Australia to invest 50 million dollars for Australia- India strategic research fund: Rudd

New Delhi, Nov 12 (ANI): Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd announced on Thursday that his government would invest 50 million dollars over five years for the Australia-India strategic research fund.

Addressing reporters here on the sidelines of his meeting with RK Pachauri, chief of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Rudd said the Fund, a joint initiative of the Australian and Indian governments, is already supporting fifty projects across the spectrum of scientific disciplines including astronomy, climate change and evolution, malaria vaccines, the impact of global warming on agriculture, water management, computing and biotechnology.

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"The additional 50 million over five years for the Australia-India strategic research fund will commence from financial year 2009-10," he added.

"I have already seen where such collaboration can lead to ground breaking research, investigating how---can be used to clean up oil contamination in water. In fact the fund which will be Australia's largest bilateral research fund is already supporting 50 projects across the spectrum of scientific disciplines," said Rudd

He also announced a further one million dollars for an innovative Australia-India solar cooling research project.

The project between CSIRO and the Energy and Resources Institute aims to develop a zero emissions solar cooling system for use in remote rural communities in un-electrified areas.

"We will contribute to a further million dollars to extend the TERI and the CSIRO collaboration working to provide a emissions free solar cooling electricity and pure drinking water for rural areas," said Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister.

Through the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, Australia's largest bilateral research fund, the Australian Government has already invested 20 million dollars since 2006 to enable Australian scientists to engage in leading edge collaborative research with Indian scientists.

The increased investment in the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund will, in particular, seek to support more applied research and engagement of industry partners in order to produce outcomes that help address some of the pressing challenges that both countries face. (ANI)