NEW DELHI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- India on Friday called upon the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to join hands to innovate affordable scientific solutions for common challenges like ensuring food, affordable healthcare and energy access for the people.
The call was made by junior minister at the Indian Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh while addressing the SCO meeting through virtual mode.
"The (SCO) member countries must jointly address emerging challenges of environmental problems like climate change and biodiversity loss," Singh said.
The minister informed his fellow ministers that India recently has launched several flagship initiatives such as the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, the National Mission on Quantum Computing and the Deep Ocean Mission to build its scientific strength in the emerging areas of science.
Singh said India remains committed to environmental and climate causes and pointed out it has launched the National Hydrogen Energy Mission and several such initiatives to fulfil India's commitment at COP26 of achieving net zero emissions by 2070 and meet 50 percent of energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
Singh assured that in times to come, the SCO shall hold global importance for being the most populated marketplace, driven by the knowledge economy. The SCO countries can collaborate to develop joint science and technology solutions suited to local economies.
"It is pertinent to mention that the SCO has emerged as a key regional organization in the Eurasian space in the past two decades of its existence, and India attaches special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral cooperation in the region," he said, noting the SCO consists of approximately 42 percent of the world's population, 22 percent of its land area, and contributes 20 percent to the global gross domestic product (GDP).
The minister conveyed India's best wishes for a successful summit in the historic city of Samarkand in September this year under the chairmanship of Uzbekistan and assured India's full support and active participation in all jointly agreed activities that will be organised during the SCO Samarkand Summit. ■
