India reinforces its cooperation with CERN
On 25 May, the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, found the time in his busy schedule between two state visits (to Russia and the Swiss Federation) to visit CERN. The President, a physicist himself and a self-confessed supporter of CERN, wanted to see with his own eyes the progress made in the word's largest particle physics laboratory. He was accompanied by the Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, and a team of journalists.
Welcomed by CERN's Director General, Robert Aymar, the President of India visited the LHC tunnel, the ATLAS experimental cavern and the test facility for the LHC magnets. There the President had the chance to meet Indian scientists working at CERN.
The visitors then moved to the main building, where a Statement of Intent was signed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar and Dr. Robert Aymar. The purpose of the statement is "to encourage extending the existing scientific and technical co-operation between India and CERN, in particular in the field of novel accelerator and information technologies, as well as through the training and education of scientists and technical experts".
This aim is to draft a Protocol to the Cooperation Agreement, to be signed by India and CERN in the near future to extend the existing collaboration in the longer term.
India has been an active partner of CERN for many years and one of the first non-Member States to make significant contributions to the LHC. A formal collaboration agreement between India and CERN was first signed in 1991. In 2002, India was granted Observer Status to CERN.
India's collaboration with CERN currently involves some 130 people with a contribution of about 30 MCHF, mainly in kind. Indian scientists are participating in CMS and ALICE, while many Indian universities and R&D organisations, as well as Indian industry, have been contributing to the LHC project, delivering state-of-the-art equipment. India is also participating in the establishment of a regional Tier-2 computing centre using GRID technology in order to provide a platform for their scientists to perform analysis of the LHC data.
