Thursday, August 25 2005 20:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and India's Department of Biotechnology have signed a Statement of Intent for collaboration on expansion of vision research.

The agreement was signed yesterday (Aug 24, 2005) by Maharaj K. Bhan, Secretary of India's Department of Biotechnology, and Elias A. Zerhouni, Director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), at the institute campus in Bethesda, Maryland, with both emphasising an increased 'commitment' to joint collaborations on eye disorders.

The two countries with the support of the Fogarty International Centre developed the agreement jointly. Speaking on the occasion, Zerhouni said, "Our scientific collaborations with colleagues in India are strong. Through this agreement, they will become stronger".

With the rising global burden of disability and suffering posed by eye disorders, partnerships such as the one we forged today are increasingly critical". "We (Indian authorities) are very concerned about the toll of many vision disorders on our well-being".

Through this collaboration, we are confident that India will gain important new knowledge for the protection of sight and for the prevention of vision loss", Bhan was quoted as saying in a NIH release.

The Letter of Intent recognised the strong 'commitment' by the two countries to reduce the burden of vision disability and blindness along with successful research collaboration between Indian and American scientists and institutions in the prevention of blindness.