Tunisian Ambassador, Tarek Azouz, today called on Dr. Jitendra Singh, union Minister of State (MoS) in Prime Minister`s Office (PMO), Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Science & Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Atomic Energy and Space at his North Block office and conveyed his government’s best wishes on the taking over of the new regime under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also expressed his willingness to work closely with the Republic of India.Dr. Jitendra Singh thanked the Ambassador for his best wishes and offered to introduce new training progrmmes for young scientists and researchers from the African Republic of Tunisia.
Referring to the Agreement on Scientific and Technical cooperation that already exists between India and Tunisia, Dr. Jitendra Singh said the NDA government desires to work in an atmosphere of global co-existence and collaboration which was evident from day one when a strong signal was set out by the participation of the heads of all the SAARC countries including Pakistan, Bhutan, Srilanka, Nepal and Bangladesh in the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and his council of Ministers on 26th May, 2014. The Prime Minister has, right from the beginning, made clear his preference for good relations with neighboring countries as well as other nations of the world, he added.
Dr. Jitendra Singh made a mention of the C V Raman fellowships being awarded to Tunisian scientists from time to time in order to enable them to undertake research in Indian R&D laboratories and institutions. Under the India-Africa Science & Technology joint initiative, the Pasteur Institute of Tunisia is doing a commendable work in the field of vaccines and diagnostics while Drug and International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi is coordinating with it. The twining programme between the two institutes is expected to raise the relationship between two nations at higher level, he added. Dr. Jitendra Singh said, in near future, science and technology department and bio-medical sciences, will build specific infrastructure for genomics and find mechanism to bring together industry and academic on the same platform. The Tunisian High Commissioner in return thanked the Minister for his positive response, he said that the republic of Tunisia look forward for greater assistance for its future growth.