India and France have inked 14 pacts in different fields including nuclear cooperation, purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, railway, food safety and public administration. The agreements were signed after the delegation level talks between visiting French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. <br/><br/>In his press statement after the MoU signing ceremony, Mr Modi termed terrorism as a challenge before the world and called for action by global community against those who provide safe havens to terrorists and nurture them financially provide training and infrastructure support. He said understanding between India and France on counter terrorism underscores determination to combat all forces that sponsor, shelter and support terrorism. He said the two countries have agreed to scale up the range of counter-terrorism cooperation to tangibly mitigate and reduce the threat of terrorism and extremism in the our societies. The Prime Minister said India and France are committed to be partners for a greener, safer, more secure and more prosperous future.<br/><br/>On a deal related to Rafale fighter jets, Mr Modi said, leaving out financial aspect, India and France have signed Inter-Governmental Agreement on purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets. <br/><br/>The Prime Minister said, decisions taken by India and France have touched all domains starting from locomotives to satellites, archival excavations to smart cities and solar energy to nuclear power. Mr Modi also invited investors from France to invest in India's programmes such as Make in India. <br/><br/>French President Francois Hollande said in his statement appreciated India's role in COP 21 climate change Summit held in Paris recently. He said, India and France have decided to prepare a roadmap to tackle all forms of trafficking while ensuring maritime security in the Indian Ocean. <br/>Yesterday also the two sides signed 16 agreements in the areas of urban development, urban transport, water and waste treatment and solar energy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande will jointly inaugurate the interim secretariat of the International Solar Alliance, ISA today. Mr Hollande will also lay the foundation stone of the headquarters of the ISA, which is aimed at increasing utilisation and promotion of solar energy in solar-rich nations. The event will be held at the National Institute of Solar Energy in Gurgaon. The ISA is specialized platform for cooperation among 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. <br/><br/>The ISA will be a major international body headquartered in India. It will be a new beginning for accelerating development and deployment of solar energy for achieving universal energy access and energy security of the present and future generations. The Paris declaration on International Solar Alliance states that countries share the collective ambition to undertake innovative and concerted efforts for reducing the cost of finance and cost of technology for immediate deployment of competitive solar generation. More than 1000 Billion US Dollars of investments are needed by 2030 for the massive deployment of affordable solar energy and to pave the way for future solar generation.