Looking forward to more Japan-India space collaborations:

The scientific community in Japan is looking forward to more collaborations with Indian scientists, Nobel laureate Professor Takaaki Kajita said today.
Prof Takaaki, who received the Nobel prize in Physics in 2015, was speaking at the 64th annual convocation of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) here. The Nobel laureate was also conferred with the honoris causa degree of D Sc by the university on the occasion.
Takaaki, who is heading a collaboration project between the University of Tokyo and AMU since the past few years, said, "I am confident that my university's collaboration with AMU would increase by leaps and bounds in the time to come".

Delivering the annual report on the occasion, AMU Vice Chancellor Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah, said the AMU Amendment Act 1981 entrusted the university with the mandate to work for the educational and cultural advancement of Muslims of the country.
"We are there for the minority character of our institution and have been taking all suitable steps to safeguard it. The case is subjudice in Supreme Court. For us it is a matter of life and death and we will not fail," he said.
The NDA government had earlier this year told the apex court that it would withdraw the appeal filed by the erstwhile UPA government challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict holding AMU as non-minority institution.

The Vice Chancellor said major development initiatives have been launched at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU.
A sum of Rs 16 crores have been sanctioned under the National Health Mission for establishing a Paediatric Cardiology and Paediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Medical College, he said.
Apart from this, Rs 8 crores have been sanctioned for Early Intervention Centre for Paediatric Department. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has sanctioned Rs 6 crores for virology lab in Department of Microbiology, Shah added.