The Indian government has approved a ten-year, £160-million (US$280-million) partnership between its Department of Biotechnology and the Wellcome Trust, a medical-research charity based in London, UK, to fund biomedical research in India.

Operated as an independent, charitable trust based in New Delhi, the new alliance will award research fellowships to an estimated 700 researchers over ten years. It was announced on 4 September that the two parties will each contribute 50% to the programme.

"The programme will result in a strong, world-class human-resource foundation … at a scale where the country can make a global impact," according to the cabinet statement.

Maharaj Kishan Bhan, secretary of the biotechnology department, says that it is the most ambitious scheme ever launched by India to reverse the brain drain.