24 Feb , 2021 By : kanchan Joshi
Brazil’s science and technology minister Marcos Pontes said his country would like to procure additional Covid-19 vaccines from strategic partner India and is keen to form a joint working group of scientists with it to address health challenges, including future pandemics.
Pontes, who is the among first few ministers to visit India so far this year, will meet his counterpart besides the health minister and scientists in Bengaluru. He will also witness the launch of Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1 from Sriharikota.
Brazil received a second batch of 2 million shots of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine from India on Tuesday. The first batch of 2 million AstraZeneca NSE 0.81 % doses was delivered in January.
Pontes pointed out that it is not just vaccines which brought him to India. “I want to do a match-making between scientists from Brazil and India who are working on Covid-19 and other similar health challenges, like dengue and chikungunia. We can produce some common solutions,” he said.
Pontes, a former Air Force pilot and an astronaut who has worked with both NASA & Russian space agency, is also keen to push partnership in the startups sector in both bilateral as well as BRICS context.
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