The biggest ever bilateral technology summit between India and the United States of America is going to take place in Delhi NCR on 18th and 19th of this month. Spread over 8,000 sq m of space at India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, this will be the first-of-its-kind coming together of industry, academia and government from both sides. A high-level delegation of 100 U.S. Government officials, headed by Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Dr. John P. Holdren, will be coming to India on this occasion.
The technology summit is organized by CII in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. A partner country is part of the summit every and this year the partner country is the US.
The who’s who of Indian corporate sector will be present at the two-day summit including Mr Ajay S Shriram, President, CII; Dr Naushad Forbes, Vice-President, CII; Mr Baba Kalyani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Defence and Mr Venkatesh Valluri, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology. The Indian Government will be represented by Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan and secretaries of at least six different ministries and other senior bureaucrats. From the US side the visiting technocrats would include Mr. William Cohen, President and CEO of the Cohen Group; Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, Lockheed Martin and Mr Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer, Cisco among many others. In addition to Dr. Holdren, other officials from the U.S. Government will include Chairman and President of U.S. Export-Import Bank, Mr. Fred P. Hochberg; Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency Leocadia I. Zak; Under Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel; Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Eric. Hirschhorn, Chief Technologist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dr. David Miller; Chief Scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ellen Stofan; the Governor of South Carolina Ms. Nikki R. Haley; Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Charles H. Rivkin; and Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets Arun Kumar.
The summit is an important step in taking forward India-US engagement, which received focused attention and a boost when Prime Minister Narenda Modi and US President Barack Obama met and issued a joint statement on September 30, 2014 in Washington. It read: “Fundamental science and high technology cooperation has been a critical pillar of the strategic partnership, the two leaders confirmed, and they looked forward to renewing the Science and Technology Agreement in order to expand joint activities in innovative technology.”
With policy dialogues, business sessions, research partnership sessions in sectors such as Manufacturing, Life Science, Clean and Renewable Energy, IT, Sustainable / Smart Cities and Education, the summit will strengthen India-U.S. ties for the economic and social development of both the countries. Several high-level partnerships and agreements are expected to be signed during the business sessions which will take concurrently at the summit.
An expo, which will take place concurrently with the summit, will for the first time see India’s premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) coming together under a common banner to showcase their research prowess to the world. Fourteen IITs and four NITs will have their pavilions at the expo in addition to several other premier institutes of technology such as the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) which has recently attained the status of an institute of national importance.
While India boasts of some of the finest research institutions with excellent output, there are gaps in channeling the output to the right recipient, leading to avoidable losses. Better convergence and synergies can help India strengthen its position vis-à-vis technology-intensive manufacturing, among others. The summit will help connect the elements of the knowledge eco-system with industry, entrepreneurs, state and Central government agencies and attract investments in the eco-system – research laboratories, corridors, universities, for instance.
The Confederation of Indian Industry, India’s apex industry association, has been leading change to accelerate India’s growth. Almost two decades ago it foresaw the importance of quality and started the Quality Movement by establishing a dedicated Institute of Quality, its first Centre of Excellence. Today CII has 9 Centres of Excellence working in different sectors. They provide consultancy and advisory services to a plethora of companies.
New Delhi
14th November 2014