In a new boost to their traditional relations this month, a two-day India-France Technology Summit has been convened in the capital beginning October 23. The Summit aims to foster joint industrial research and development in India and France.

The two nations would facilitate people to people contact through participation of 250 high profile industrialists from France and over 350 industrial entrepreneurs from India, to focus technological collaborations in the domains of Chemical and Materials, Aeronautics and Aerospace, Biotechnology, Agri-Food and Healthcare, Smart Cities Network and Security, Energy and Climate.

Apart, a slew of thematic roundtables and workshops by academicians, researchers, policy-makers of both countries will facilitate research collaborations in domains of energy, air transport, IT for aerospace, neuroscience, nanotechnology, urban rail, electronics from silicon to systems, complex systems, metabolic diseases, water and agriculture, and many novel areas.

The Technology Summit is the follow-up of French President Francois Hollande’s visit of India last February, and the subsequent joint declaration by minister of science and technology Jaipal Reddy and French minister for Higher education Genevieve Fioraso for setting up a networking platform to build collaborative industrial research and development.

The Summit also meets the annual calendar of the Global Technology Summit and Technology Platform convened every year jointly by the department of science and technology (DST) and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). France is the partner country in this year’s Summit.

That CII is one of the organizers of the Summit along with the DST proves the thrust theme to boost SMEs, which is the new speciality of this year’s Summit.

A number of bilateral agreements and programmes of cooperation have been slated for the Indian and French industries and research institutes to showcase technology-intensive products, intellectual property rights, services and researches in the focus sectors. A number of B2B meets and signing of expressions of interests are scheduled to take place in the interactive R&D platform. The Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR) has also fostered peer to peer interactions between scientists of the two countries and supported exchanges of more than 400 researchers in last two years.

Asked if the ensuing meetings of the entrepreneurs of the two countries aim to harness unexplored areas like setting up of manufacturing units in India of solar photo-voltaic modules, and forging new areas in the domains of green and renewable energy sector, French Ambassador in India Francois Richier explained that a number of JVs in various parts of India would be set up, which sooner or later would also cover the renewable energy sector.

The possible French investment in a couple of years in India is likely to go up to US $ 19 billion, “a plus US$ 1 billion investment every year since the year before last”, Richier said adding, “We are not starting from the scratch, nor it is a green field for us, as already we have achieved 460 MoUs and 25 years of research and development relations.” (IPA Service)