New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS): The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave approval to signing of a memorandum of understanding between India and Spain to develop scientific and technical collaboration in the field of astronomy.

The activities to be carried out under the MoU will lead to new scientific results, new technologies, capacity building through increased scientific interaction and training, and joint scientific projects.

The MoU will be signed between Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the GRANTECAN, SA (GTC), Spain to develop scientific and technical collaborations in astronomy.

The joint research projects, training programmes, conferences and seminars under the MoU will be open to all qualified scientists, students and technologists and will be supported solely on the basis of scientific merit and experience.

It will lead to the development of segmented telescope technologies as well as the development of robotic telescopes and other future potential specific collaborations.