Friday, March 17 2006 19:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India and Russia today (Mar 17 2006) signed seven agreements to bolster cooperation in space, banking and other sectors.

Under one such agreement, the EXIM bank has agreed to open a 100 million dollar line of credit with Russian Vneshtorg Bank, the largest such credit line extended so far by it. A pact to this effect was signed by the two banks during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.

The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) signed an accord with Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) for launching of Russian navigation satellites GLONASS-M by a variant of Indian Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

This is a follow-up agreement to the umbrella GLONASS agreement signed in December, 2004.

Another agreement was reached between ISRO and ROSCOSMOS on joint development of GLONASS navigation satellites GLONASS-K. This is also a follow-up agreement to the earlier accord. Indian and Russian space agencies would cooperate in developing GLONASS-K satellite with technoloogical inputs from either side.

Indian Oil Corporation and Russian joint stock company Stroytransgaz signed a Memorandum of Understanding for pursuing petro-infrastructure projects worldwide jointly through a consortium.

The other pacts on cooperation were between ICICI Bank and Vnesheconom Bank, CII and the Russian Union of Industries and Enterprises and between FICCI and the Indo-Russian Business Council.