Bilateral Cooperations
During the year 2016, it was mutually agreed to substantially step up the bilateral S&Tcooperation agenda which is one of the pillars of Indo-U.S. strategic partnership with a joint investmentlevel of more than US $ 220 million. The Joint Commission agreed to initiate cooperation in the areas of water cycle modeling, weather forecasting and ocean dynamics. To enhance the cooperation in Clean Energy Research a new priority R&D area on Smart Grids and Energy Storage has also been agreed. Additionally, Under the flagship Vaccine Action Program it has been agreed to collaborate on new vaccine candidates for dengue, TB and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, besides undertaking collaborative R&D programs on anti-microbial resistance and cancer research. A new strand of Indo-U.S. cooperation in agriculture sciences was also agreed covering topical areas like storage and processing for reducing post-harvest losses and climate smart agriculture system. In the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship, India and USA have launched several successful initiatives including the U.S- India Endowment Fund for Innovation, India Innovation Growth Program, Millennium Alliance, Stanford-India Biodesign, Indo-U.S. Sister Innovation Hub, Bengaluru-Boston Research Entrepreneurship Program etc., which would directly contribute to the Start-up India program.