The U.S. and India have ramped up efforts to build more scientific ties, including in the field of nanotechnology. On October 17th, an agreement was signed between the U.S. and India that will encourage research partnerships between the world's two largest democracies. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Indian Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal signed an agreement that resolves disputes on how intellectual property (IP) rights will be shared and other questions of taxation, import-export customs, and like issues. Under the new agreement, academic, corporate, and government scientists are given the freedom to build partnerships in basic research around space exploration, biotechnology, energy, nanotechnology, and other sciences. More substantive collaborations can go deeply into possibly valuable discoveries, and nanotechnology is a high priority. The agreement gives each country exclusive rights to license intellectual property (IP) in its own country and promises to share licensing revenues in other countries using formulas to be negotiated on a per-case basis. Venture Intelligence India estimates that American venture capital firms put $397 million into Indian companies in 2Q2005, most of which goes into call centers and other technology-related businesses. Many Indian IT companies have emerged over the last decade and work with U.S. corporations, which has stimulated Indian economic expansion.