India, US ink three agreements on energy
By IANSMonday, November 8, 2010
NEW DELHI - In keeping with US President Barack Obama’s focus on energy cooperation, three agreements were signed Monday in this sector including one on setting up a research institute on clean energy.
The agreements were part of several deals signed after talks between the visiting US president and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The agreements included, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up a clean energy research and development centre which will be jointly funded by the two countries.
This centre will have initial priority areas of solar energy, biofuels and building efficiency.
Both countries have pledged $5 million each for the first five years.
In another energy deal, a MoU was signed on shale gas resources.
The open-ended deal will allow cooperation in characterization, assessment of Shale Gas resources in the Indian basins.
It will also result in cooperative activities in technical studies and training of Indian personnel in the area of resource assessment of shale gas.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) will carry out studies on shale gas resources and will provide report to India.
The third MoU was to establish an India-US Energy Cooperation Programme, which will be an organization of Indian and US companies to promote clean energy and energy efficiency business.
