This meeting of the Japan-India Science Council was held in Tokyo on 28 January 2005. Co-organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and JSPS, its purpose was to discuss the Japan-India Cooperative Program. The Council, whose member comprise leading Japanese and Indian intellectuals, is co-chaired by Dr. Saburo Nagakura, President of the Japan Academy, and Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Honorary President of Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research. This was the eighth time for it to meet.

Based on the guidance of the Council, JSPS and DST have since 1993 supported research collaboration in the following six priority areas under the program.

• Molecular Structure, Dynamics, and Molecular Materials, including Supramolecular Science
• Advanced Materials, including Polymers and Nanomaterials
• Modern Biology and Biotechnology
• Manufacturing Sciences
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Surface and Interface Science, including Catalyses

In each of these areas, Japanese and Indian coordinators work together to organize joint research projects, joint seminars and scientist exchanges. At the meeting, the coordinators of each area reported on their activities over the 2001-2004 period. The Council noted that the network between Japanese and Indian researchers has been expanding, that information and knowledge exchanges are being conducted actively, and that many fruitful results have been achieved.

Based on the program’s performance to date, the Council agreed to introduce a practice of open competition into the program so as to reach a broader spectrum of researchers who are interested in conducting joint research between Japan and India. Further details are to be discussed between JSPS and DST.

The Council also agreed based on a suggestion by Prof. C.N.R. Rao to hold a joint workshop as a collaborative activity between JSPS and DST on the major earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and the tsunami in the Indian Ocean last December.

Near the close of the meeting, Dr. Nagakura stated his intension to resign as the Japanese co-chairperson at the end of this fiscal year. Prof. Keitaro Yoshihara was elected as the new Japanese co-chairperson.

Compared to the time when JSPS and DST launched the program, the network between Japan and India has vastly expanded along with a proliferation in cultural and economic exchange between the two countries. At the same time, the number of researchers who visit India or vice versa Japan has increased exponentially. Given this success, it can be said that the Council, with its top-level membership, has been both farsighted and innovative in the initiatives it has taken to promote bilateral research collaboration.

The meeting ended with an agreement that JSPS and DST will advance collaboration at this juncture of the program's transition while paying close heed to the advice of the Council and will conclude an MoU for implementing the program from the next fiscal year.