7th Meeting Of The BRICS Astronomy Working Group (BAWG):
India virtually hosted the 7th meeting of the BRICS Astronomy Working Group (BAWG) under the Science, Technology, and Innovation track of the BRICS 2021.
- The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, and Department of Science and Technology (DST) coordinated the meeting.
- BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- In 2001, the British Economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
- The grouping was formalized during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers’ in 2006.
- South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS.
- India has assumed the BRICS Presidency from January 2021.
About BRICS Astronomy Working Group:
- It provides a platform for BRICS member countries to collaborate in the field of astronomy, recommending that the focal points in each country should present the scientific results of the work being carried out in each country.
- This will help seek funding support to realize the flagship project whenever funding opportunities are announced by BRICS funding agencies.
- At the meeting, the members indicated future directions of research in this area such as building a network of intelligent telescope and data network, the study of transient astronomical phenomena in-universe, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning application to process the voluminous data generated nowadays due to enhance multi-wavelength telescope observatory.
