PM Modi to deliver keynote address at Grand Challenges Meeting on Monday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural function of Grand Challenges Annual Meeting on Monday evening via video conferencing.

The Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, for the last 15 years, has fostered international innovation collaborations to address the biggest challenges in health and development, the Prime Minister's Office noted in a statement on Saturday.

It said the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting will convene this year virtually from October 19 to 21, bringing together policymakers and science leaders.

It will call for deepened scientific collaborations in solving global health problems with great emphasis on COVID-19 with an "India for the World" framing, the statement said.

The Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020 will be co-hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, the Indian Council of Medical Research and NITI Aayog, along with the Grand Challenges Canada, the United States Agency for International Development and Wellcome, it said.

World leaders, eminent scientists and researchers from across the globe will join this annual meeting to discuss key priorities for accelerating progress across the sustainable development goals in the post-pandemic world and elaborate on addressing the challenges to manage COVID-19.

Approximately, 1,600 people from 40 countries will participate in this meeting.