By Arun Kumar and Manish Chand
Washington, Nov 24 (IANS) As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began his first state visit to the US with an invitation to the business community to stay engaged with India, a dozen agreements were signed for deepening Indo-US economic cooperation.

Signed Monday in the presence of Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Indian Ambassador, Meera Shankar these included eight agreements between US and Indian companies/institutions, facilitated by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) signed three other Memorandums of Understanding (MoU).

HCL and CISCO also signed an MoU to work globally in the area of Homeland Security to jointly deliver security and surveillance technology solutions.

Tata Communications and Tyco Electronics signed a Submarine Cable Supply Contract for a new system that is intended for construction in the Gulf area to give a boost to the telecommunication systems.

Infosys and Microsoft Technologies signed an Enterprise Agreement for fulfilling the procurement and help in use of their technologies.

Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited and Novavax Inc. joined hands with the vision to enable the production of key vaccines in India, including the most recently developed H1N1 Pandemic Vaccine.

CII and Santech Communications also propose to work together to explore the possibility of establishing Santech CII Centre of Excellence on Nano-electronics.

FICCI signed an MoU with University of Texas at Austin to expand the ongoing cooperation for commercialisation of Indian innovations by including capacity building, training of incubation centers and enhancing innovation capabilities of academic R&D institutions.

Another with the Institute of International Education (IIE), Washington seeks to facilitate the exchange of information regarding scholarships and fund options available for cross-mobility of students, researchers and faculty.

The third one with Polytechnic Institute of New York University seeks to promote Indian innovation capabilities in the US and to make available to the R&D establishments in the public and private sector in India the best practice in innovation from the US.

FICCI also facilitated a MoU between International Institute of Information Technology (IsquareIT), Pune and Lawrence Tech University, Michigan signed a MoU with the purpose of launching MS-level courses in the field of Automotive Engineering.