India-Italy technology summit
Andalib Akhter / NEW DELHI
UNION Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday called for newer areas of cooperation between India and Italy. He was speaking at the India-Italy technology summit here Monday.
Dr Vardhan said government is working steadily to ease the bottleneck in doing business and innovation in scientific areas. He said India and Italy are working together in many areas and major thrust should be given to Research and Development and knowledge economy.
He expressed the hope that the summit would focus on advanced manufacturing and clean technology in the days to come.
Dr Vardhan also said both countries should work together in space technology, heritage protection and linking research institutes.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Michele Geraci said that hundreds of representatives from over 50 Italian companies had come to India for the Technology Summit. Both the countries are going through big challenges which are crucial for them to solve. While Italy is looking at ways to ensure long-term growth, India is already on a high growth curve. This offers great opportunity for the two countries to increase their bilateral trade.
Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology said that many collaborative projects were already going on between India and Italy and more than 100 scientists were working together. The synchrotron project is one such example. Summing up the partnership between the two countries in a catch-phrase “From Hampi to Pompeii”, Prof. Sharma mentioned that technologies for the restoration and preservation of cultural heritage was an area where Italy and India could do a lot of useful work together.
Talking about the challenges and opportunities in India-Italy business cooperation, Shreekant Somany, Chairman of CII MSME Council, said, “Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) could be the cornerstone of partnership between the two countries.” Among the potential sectors of increased bilateral trade, he mentioned fine dining, electronics, jewellery, watches and automobiles.
Mr. Vincenzo De Luca, Director General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that two years ago, 23 new projects were launched, showing intense strong productive useful cooperation in a very short time. Key areas he identified for cooperation included clean energy, energy efficiency, life sciences, and space.
The Tech Summit is 24th in the series, since 1995. This year focuses on seven key sectors identified jointly by both the countries which include aerospace, cleantech, cultural heritage, education, healthcare, ICT and renewables.