India, Australia exchange five MoUs

India and Australia exchanged five Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in the presence of Foreign Minister of Australia Marine Payne and Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde during President Ramnath Kovind's maiden visit to the island nation.

The MoUs were exchanged by High Commissioner of India to Australia Ajay M. Gondane and High Commissioner of Australia to India Harinder Sidhu.

Of five, one of the MoUs was signed by Indian and Australian envoys Gondane and Sidhu for cooperation in the field of disability sector. The MoU deals with the exchange of information regarding disability policy, delivery of services, cooperation in early identification and intervention to mitigate various disabilities including mental illness, community outreach, education, and training; exchange of information on promoting investment in the disability sector, capacity building for persons with disabilities.

With the objective of facilitation of bilateral investment flows in each other's countries, a MoU between Australian Trade and Investment Commission (AUSTRADE) and INVEST India was inked by Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of INVEST India Deepak Bagla and Chief Executive Officer of AUSTRADE Stephanie Fay.

Another Memorandum of Understanding between Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDI), India, and The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia for furthering Scientific Cooperation was signed by K.K. Mishra, Director (Technical), CMPDI and Hua Guo, Research Director-Coal Mining, CSIRO. The objective of MoU is research cooperation in various aspects of coal mining.

A MoU between Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India and The University of Western Australia, for cooperation in agricultural research and education, was also signed by the Vice Chancellors of the two universities. The objective of this MoU is the exchange of scientists, technologists, students; exchange of germ plasma and breeding material; exchange of scientific literature, information and methodology and other areas as mutually agreed.

With the objective to develop a Joint PhD programme whereby research students are enrolled in a PhD course at each university and perform coordinated research studies at both universities, the two South Asian countries also inked a Joint PhD agreement.

The agreement was signed by Director of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIITD) Ranjan Bose and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Arun Sharma.