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Tremendous Opportunities for Collaboration: Dr Arabinda Mitra
Nov 22, 2014

Government and GITA announce joint research grants with Spain and the UK

Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Director, GITA Board and Chairman, CII Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council, said India offers tremendous opportunities in the current climate to create business by converging electronics with Information and communication technologies (ICTs). He was speaking at a session titled, ‘Funding and Collaboration Opportunities in Electronics and Information & Communication Technology (ICT) at the Knowledge Expo, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry in partnership with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Science and Technology on November 20-21 in Greater Noida.

“You have to combine ICTs with electronics to manufacture devices for automotive, body-wearing, home automation, security and so many more. We significantly reduce costs and make technology available to people of this country,” Mr Gopalakrishnan urged Indian and international investors from Japan, Europe and other countries.

Talking about the successful collaborations that India has forged at the international level, Dr Arabinda Mitra, Adviser & Head, International (Bilateral) Cooperation Department of Science & Technology, said that the Indian government has been able to successfully engage with 43 countries in research and design (R&D). He highlighted the fact that the government has hiked the R&D budget by 20-25 per cent over the last few years and expects this research to meet the unmet needs of the people and be able to produce goods that are affordable and useful for people.

Taking the international multi-stakeholder collaborations forward, Dr Mitra also launched a joint request for proposals (RFP) with the Government of Spain on science and technology (S&T) development in the areas of smart cities, clean technologies and ICTs. He also launched another call for proposals with the UK on cleantech energy, affordable healthcare, advanced manufacturing and the use of ICTs.

Dr Ajai Garg, Additional Director - Innovation & IPR, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, also gave a fillip to the investment pitch. Dr Garg said that the three mega projects announced by the Prime Minister, ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’ and ‘100 Smart Cities’ all require ICT devices, therefore, offering a mammoth investment and manufacturing opportunity to Indian and global firms. He also emphasised on the fact that foreign companies should tie-up with Indian innovators as India has the market, the solutions as well as the spending power.

Almost every speaker in the session spoke about the large size of the Indian market, something which Mr Ramesh Datla, Chairman, CII National Committee on Intellectual Property & CMD, ELICO, also highlighted. Mr Datla said that worldwide, the electronics industry is the largest and India has set itself a target of $400 billion, therefore the challenge will be to fill up the massive $300 billion gap.

A large number of foreign investors present at the panel discussion offered to tie-up with India and also shared their experiences of working in the country. Foremost among them was Dr Robert C van der Drift, Head of Computer Science, NWO, Netherlands, whose country has a number of collaborative research projects running with the Government of India and various academic institutions. In a very optimistic message, Dr Drift said: “We have laid the foundation for collaboration with India and we need to build on the current portfolio.”

Ms Lucía Gregorio, Member of the Executive Board of PLANETIC - Spanish Technology Platform for Electronic, Communication and Information Technologies, said that she was in India to find out ways of collaboration here. Underlining the phenomenal role of ICTs, she said that the sector is now impacting the economic growth and productivity in Europe. Ms Gregorio gave an overview of the growth of ICTs in Spain and how her country is advancing research in ICTs.

In a similar presentation, Mr Tomaz Vidonja, Director Business Development, ICT Technology Network, Slovenia, showed how his small European country is strategically developing ICTs to be able to bring benefits to bigger countries across the globe. The advantages that Slovenia offers are the cross-industry cooperation and formation of sectoral clusters, among others.

Mr Oren Epstein, CEO, SMUFS Biometric Solution, a tech entrepreneur from Israel said: “I will be the voice of the small companies,” and wanted governments across the world to pay attention to and promote small companies. Mr Epstein expressed confidence that GITA will be able to help him find his feet in the Indian market for his software solutions. His company has developed biometric solutions that will not only help the Indian government but can be used across the world.

In his presentation, Mr Alok Upadhaya, Head – GIS & International Business Development, Navayuga Spatial Technologies, highlighted how his company is doing a project with Canadian collaboration using the most advanced computer technologies. His project, facilitated by GITA, is one that will be the foundation of the ambitious smart cities project announced by the Indian PM.

In another panel discussion, ‘Funding and Collaboration Opportunities in Clean & Renewable Energy’, Mr K Krishnan, Chairman, MPPPL, and President, Centre for Rural Energy and Water Access, said “We need to think of a paradigm shift in the power sector.”

Highlighting how India will harness renewable energy, Mr TS Keshav Prasad, Chief Operating Office, Solar IL&FS Energy Development Company, said that the next generation will belong to renewable energy particularly as India is just beginning to lay emphasis on this sector while the world, including China, have already enhanced their capacities manifold. Mr Prasad said that as India does not have a big manufacturing capacity in solar, many countries like USA and China are showing great interest in investing in India.

It was a similar sentiment that Mr RK Mehra, ED (Pipelines), BPCL, echoed when he said that per capita energy consumption in India is still very low as compared to that in the West or even in China. He said that solar and wind will be the key energy sources in times to come but in biofuels, another source of clean energy, India lags way behind. He also highlighted how BPCL has been able to improve various technologies for refining of crude and how his company is looking at opening up collaborations with Indian and foreign institutes.

Dr Tomoji Kawai, ED, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan, spoke about how his company has been demonstrating their nearly-dozen clean energy projects across India. He also mentioned the top researches his company has been doing in the fields of renewable energy, energy development, water treatment, solar energy and wind power.

Mr David Amir, CEO, Biological Petroleum Cleaning, Israel, also spoke about how his company has successfully installed their revolutionary technology for cleaning waste water—the biological remediation treatment—in India. Mr Amir added that their technology is such that it can treat both industrial as well as sewage waste water.

Mr Lorenzo Chacón, Manager, PLANETA - Spanish Platform for Environmental Technology, gave an overview of his country’s thoughts on clean technologies. He said that clean technology is now key for a strong and competitive industry and for sustainable smart cities. He added that Spain is taking up research in technologies related to water, waste & raw materials and also energy and is also leading a European initiative in clean tech.

Mr Sanjay Rao, CMD, CHOGEN Power, thanked GITA for enabling their highly versatile biomass power project which is now being taken to the UK. He also showed in detail how the project, that needed extensive R&D, is one of the top tar-free, biomass power projects in the world.

Dr BS Negi, Director, R&D (Coordination) Wind and Biogass, and BDTC, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (Wind) highlighted the ministry’s vision in developing the new and renewable energy policy. Dr Negi mentioned how the ministry is developing joint R&D with industry, how it has funded around 160 projects and how even the inaccessible hill states are getting such power projects. He also thanked GITA for setting up the single window initiative to give a boost to research and collaboration with governments and industry.

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