Norway-India Partnership in Polar Research
India and Norway closer to one another in questions related to Polar Research and a new proposal for polar research co-operation is on the anvil, reports Press Trust of India.
The Norwegian Research Council and the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India will announce a new proposal for polar research very soon, Minister Counsellor at the Norwegian Embassy in India, Sigvald T Hauge said. This will further strengthen, we believe, the long-standing polar collaboration between the two countries.
Indian scientists are carrying out important researches at the 'Himadri' Arctic research station in Svalbard in Norway.
President Pranab Mukherjee had last October become the first Indian head of state to visit the Scandinavian country and thanked its government for the assistance and support extended to India in establishing its Polar Research Station in Svalbard.
"We are grateful for your endorsement of India's rightful claim to permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council and for your proactive efforts that helped India achieve Observer status in the Arctic Council," the president had said.
India commenced its scientific endeavors in the Artic in 2007. Since then Norwegian Polar Institute and the Indian National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research have maintained a sustained partnership in scientific and logistic co-operation on polar research.
There is already an existing MoU between Norwegian Polar Institute and NCAOR for collaborative research on such scientific themes as shallow ice-core drilling, ice dynamics and monitoring of glaciers/ice cap margins in polar regions to understand the climate; variability over both the high latitudes in the last millennia.