India may get own umbrella research body

Pune: Adapting with the times, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) has mooted the idea of roping in all research institutes under one umbrella for ease in research collaborations within and outside the country.

While talking to mediapersons here on Friday, IUCAA Director Somak Raychaudhary said, “For the first time, there were bilateral collaboration talks between Japan and India at ministry levels. Owing to this, a Japanese delegation visited IUCAA. The visit was remarkable, as it saw nearly a dozen directors from various research institutes, including Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bangalore), IUCAA, National Centre for Radio Astronomy (NCRA) and others.”

“The aim behind calling the directors or representatives was to have such an umbrella organisation, but nothing formal was devised or decided,” he said, adding that never before had such an attempt been made, but now since many institutes are jointly working for international or national projects like LIGO, such an umbrella organisation may help in better coordination.
 
“This visit will also pave way for bilateral talks between the two countries, though no government official was present,” he said. India, which earlier had collaborations with USA and European countries, now was spreading its wings and having collaborations with Taiwan, China and Australia, he said.
 
Many Indians are working in various Japanese projects including KGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in individual or institutional capacity but no projects have been taken up by the countries. 

The Japanese delegation was delighted to know the amount and kind of research various Indian institutes do, said Raychaudhary; adding countries like Japan, China have National Astronomical Observatories where the universities and research institutes are linked.