India chairs the 6th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Young Scientist Forum (YSF) for the year 2021.The event was hosted by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), in collaboration with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru (NIAS). The forum represented the four areas such as Health care, Energy, Cyber and Innovations.
- Sanjay Bhattacharyya of India, Secretary (CPV&OIA) & BRICS Sherpa delivered a keynote address at BRICS Young Scientist Forum.
- India recently chaired the 13th BRICS Summit with the theme BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.
Note: BRICS group includes five major emerging countries- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Health Care
i.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BRICS Scientific Ministries joined hands to support collaborative research in multiple areas.
ii.Funding agencies from BRICS countries, including the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology from India, are co-investing about USD 10 million to support collaborative projects.
iii.India agreed to operationalise the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre as a virtual network.
Energy
i.India recently crossed the 100GW of renewable energy milestone and aims to meet the target of 450 GW by 2030.
ii.Development of technical cooperation should be a strategic priority for BRICS countries especially in clean and renewable energy, storage technologies, distribution, energy efficiency and applications.
Cyber
i.Through Digital India Programme, India has fostered innovation and enterprise and transformed the lives of its citizens in unprecedented ways.
ii.India’s Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, enabled by our national identity programme, Aadhar, has provided social security to millions.
Innovation
i.India took a number of initiatives under BRICS partnership viz. iBRICS Network, BRICS Global Research Advanced Infrastructure Network (BRICS GRAIN), BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Architecture to foster scientific collaboration on research, development and innovation facilities.
India chairs BRICS tax authorities’ virtual meet
Under the chairship of India, the tax authorities of the BRICS countries held a virtual meeting with a theme ‘Redefining the Business Processes of Tax Administration amidst challenges posed by Covid-19and in the Digital Era’, to discuss the challenges faced by the tax administrations of the member countries in the digital era and the Covid pandemic situation.
- Government of India, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj presided over the meeting.
- The aim of the meeting was to share experiences and devise strategies to overcome the challenges
- During the meeting various decisions were taken including digitisation of tax administration, leveraging technology for tackling tax evasion, changing the role of tax administration to enhance voluntary compliance by taxpayers.
About BRICS
Founded: June 2006
Members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa
Objective: To promote peace, security, development and cooperation.
