India, Germany ink deals for cooperation in energy, climate
PTI | 10:02 PM,Feb 02,2011New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) India and German today signed two agreements worth over 500 million euros to step up cooperation in energy, environment protection and social sectors."Two umbrella agreements amounting to a total of about 500 million euros were signed by German Ambassador Thomas Matussek and Prabodh Saxena, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance," a German embassy statement said here."Roughly 95 per cent of the amount consists of preferential loans, the rest are grants and the agreements bring into force the commitments made by the German government in the annual Indo-German government negotiations held in November 2010 in Bonn," it added.The agreements focus on projects related to protecting the environment and addressing concerns on climate change by using renewable energy and by improving the efficiency of energy generation and consumption.Projects providing advice on adapting to climate change in north-eastern India and promoting environment-friendly urban infrastructure measures are also included in the agreements, they said.The two sides also agreed on starting a social protection programme for the workers in the unorganised sector, which will support government efforts to provide access to schemes for elderly, health and incapacity insurance for these workers.Speaking on the occasion, the German ambassador said an important concern of Indo-German cooperation was to connect with India's efforts to discover model solutions and to train Indian partners so that they are able to continue the activities independently and also replicate them."Given the size of the country, this is the only way to achieve sustainable impacts," he added.
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