Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

MoU soon on Indo-French centre

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE MARCH 21. An Indo-French "virtual centre" to study climate change will be established at the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS) here.

The Indo-French Centre for Environment and Climate (IFCEC) will be set up under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the respective councils for scientific research, CSIR and CNRS. Institut Pierre Simmon Laplace, a key centre in France where nearly 300 scientists in six laboratories are studying climate change, will collaborate with C-MMACS to set up IFCEC.

The centre will, among other things, study the variability of monsoon and the emission and uptake of carbon dioxide, C-MMACS scientists say. "From our side, IFCEC will mostly use the strong computational strengths we have," says Gagan Prathap, scientist-in-charge, C-MMACS.

The MoU, to be concluded by R.A.Mashelkar, head of CSIR, and Gerard Megie, President of CNRS, who is touring India, has been delayed. While Dr. Megie said "we have no problems from the French side," sharing intellectual property generated in the project is said to be a sticky issue.

In a talk at the National Aerospace Laboratories here on Thursday, Dr. Megie gave an overview of the projects to study climate change that France was involved in. Megha Tropiques, an Indo-French satellite programme to study the "water cycle of convective systems and their interaction with the environment", is at a pre-launch stage, he said.

The satellite is to be launched by ISRO. It will have one payload from ISRO and two from its French counterpart CNES.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Mob goes on a rampage in City Market area
• Our hands are tied, say police
• MoU soon on Indo-French centre
• Bedlam in BMP Council over budgetary allocation for wards

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu