Technology Summit offers invaluable platform to forge knowledge partnerships”, says Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Introduction

“From Hampi to Pompeii” catch phrase for collaboration on restoration and preservation of cultural heritage.

The 24 th India-Italy Technology Summit was jointly inaugurated by Union Minister forScience & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest & Climate Change Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Italian Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Dr. Michele Geraci, here today.

Inaugurating the Summit, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “The Technology Summit offers an invaluable platform to forge knowledge partnerships between the two countries.” Among the deliverables of the summit, he mentioned follow-up action between Indian and Italian organizations; timely convergence of dialogues in focus sectors; identifying potential projects for India - Italy bilateral R&D collaboration and identifying bilateral technology development initiatives to establish demonstration projects in a time-bound manner.

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, ShriShreekantSomany, 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 24 th 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.

Source

Press Information Bureau , 29 October 2018