India-US: MoUs for cooperation in Health and Biomedical Sciences

Union minister for health and family welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, addressed the closing session of 4th Indo-US Health Dialogue on September 28, 2021. This session was hosted by India.

Highlights

• The two-day Dialogue deliberated upon several ongoing collaborations in the health sector between both the countries.
• During the dialogue, issues related to areas of concern related to strengthening of epidemiological research & surveillance, one health, vaccine development, zoonotic & vector-borne diseases, health policies and health systems etc were discussed.
• Countries signed two MoUs at the concluding session:

1. One MoU was signed between health ministry of India and Department of Health and Human Services of USA regarding cooperation in the field of health & biomedical sciences.
2. Second MoU was signed between Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases for cooperation on International Centre for Excellence in Research (ICER).

• Being global partners, India and USA need to work collaboratively in reforming the global health architecture.
• Other important areas in which both the countries can work include: management of health emergencies; mental health interventions; supporting digital health & innovation and research & production related to diagnostics, therapeutics & vaccines. In these areas, India can offer its low-cost research network as well as huge production capacities.

India-US relations

Relation between India and US have become multi-faceted and it covers cooperation in areas like trade, defence & security, civil nuclear energy, education, health, science & technology, space technology & applications, and environment. Both the countries had established a “Strategic Dialogue” in July 2009 with the objective of strengthening bilateral cooperation across different sectors.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2021