The two areas which are getting immediate attention are railways and civil aviation. In view of the massive modernization drive in the Indian railways, the Russian companies have got a big opportunity for collaboration. The Russian officials are having talks with the Indian railways for participation in the ambitious expansion programme of the railways including the setting up of high speed railway projects. According to the industry sources, Russians have expressed interest in improving the signaling and safety infrastructure in Indian railways and Russia has offered to help in supplying the most advanced systems.

Sources indicate that Russia has already several high speed rail projects and plans to set up over 4,000 km of lines which can run trains at 400 km per hour. In addition, about 7,000 km of fast lines will be built that will be capable of running trains at 140 km to 200 km per hour. .Russia is facing sanctions from the United States led western block for its Ukraine policy and that has led the Russians to look more to China and India for collaboration and investments.

Indian economic ministries officials have been asked by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reorient the existing collaboration agreements to the needs of the Make In India Programme. Under this campaign, the Indian Government is looking at establishing industries across the country including world class infrastructure facilities and connectivity. The Delhi Mumbai corridor with the participation of the Japanese companies is already gaining traction.US companies are also expected to explore corridor development in alignment with state level policies.

According to the latest Russian assessment, Russian vehicles, equipment, transportation, chemical products, fertilizer, oil and gas, semi precious and precious metals, coke and thermal coal as also diamonds have large demand in the Indian market. The Indian and the Russian businessmen will have to aggressively pursue the trade possibilities so that the volume of trade can go up substantially to the benefit of both the countries.

The hard reality is that due to a number of negative factors, the trade volume between the two countries was limited to the level of only US$ 10 billion in the last few years and in 2014, it was even lower at US$9.5 billion .Exports from Russia was estimated at US$ 6.3 billion in 2014 while the imports from India totaled US$ 3.2 billion. In the first four months of 2015, the bilateral trade between the two countries totaled only US$ 2.5 billion which is a reduction by 17 per cent from the same period last year.

Both the Russian and Indian sides have taken note of this dismal state of bilateral trade and also new investments and following high level discussions, both the countries are now determined to pursue with vigour the potential areas for trade and investments. Russian sources indicate that the Government is in the process of updating the intergovernmental agreement to encourage speedy investments. Similarly the Indian minister of state for commerce Nirmala Sitharaman during her visit to Russia last week indicated that the NDA government will address fast the issues which are adversely affecting the flow of trade and investment. She also said that the Russian government has also assured her of aggressively engaging with the Indian business in the coming months.

The Indian minister who interacted with both the Russian side and the Indian businessmen during this visit suggested that the Indian companies should focus on specific business issues in Russia and share it with the Government and the embassy so that an appropriate platform can be created to address and resolve the vexed issues at the earliest. She said that the Modi government was determined to impart a new dimension to India-Russia economic relations and her ministry will do everything possible to achieve the objective.

A significant development is that Russian outfit RusNano is considering the establishment of a Russian Indian joint fund to support joint projects in the fields of high technology and technology transfer. Already since last year, the India-Russia joint working group for strategic projects has begun exercises on choosing promising projects for collaboration and if the fund starts operating, this process will get a big boost since funding will pose no problem. The studies have shown that the extension of industrial cooperation between Russia and India is possible in industries such as the production of power equipment, railway equipment, machine tools, aircraft and helicopter apart from tractor, equipment for the metallurgical industry and the oil, gas and chemical industries.

The Indian Government has sought collaboration for its Smart City project as a part of Make In India campaign. The smart city initiative gives huge impetus to urban development and infrastructure. The Russian enterprises could enter agreements with Indian state governments and municipalities in India for specific project development in public transport, urban rail, sanitation and low cost housing. Among the other areas, the technology companies can explore the vibrant start up environment that has opened up in India. It is estimated that since 2010, start ups have generated close to US$ 3 billion worth of funding and Indian has emerged as the fourth largest global market for start ups. (IPA)