India-UK Tech CEO Alliance announced
India welcomed the United Kingdom initiative of establishing a UK-India Tech Hub in the country as part of growing bilateral Technology Partnership.
The Tech Hub will bring together hi-tech companies to create investment and export opportunities and provide a new platform to share the very best technologies and advance policy collaboration including on Future Mobility, Advanced Manufacturing and Healthcare AI under India’s Aspirational districts’ Programme.
“We will establish a series of new partnerships between UK regional and Indian State-level tech clusters, to drive joint innovation and R&D,” said a joint statement.
The statement was issued on 18 April 2018 after Prime Minister Theresa May met visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“With the support of both Governments we have also announced an India-UK Tech CEO Alliance; signed a Tech UK/NASSCOM MoU focused on skills and new technologies, including industry-led apprenticeship schemes; and launched the new UK FintechRocketship Awards to boost fintech and wider entrepreneurship in India,” said the statement.
Both sides are deploying the best of British and Indian talent in science, research and technology to address priority global challenges.
The UK is India’s second largest international research and innovation partner. The 2008 UK-India Newton-Bhabha programme will have lifted joint research and innovation awards to over GBP400 million by 2021.
“We will also deepen our joint working relationship on health to make the UK and India safer and healthier places to live, including through scaling up and rolling out AI and digital health technologies.
The two leaders agreed to forge a dynamic new India-UK Trade Partnership, to develop new trading arrangements as the UK assumes responsibility for its independent trade policy, facilitate investment in both directions and intensify collaboration on shared or complementary strengths.
“Building on the recommendations of the recently-completed UK-India Joint Trade Review, we will work together on a sector-based roadmap, to reduce barriers to trade, make it easier to do business in both countries and enable a stronger bilateral trade relationship after the UK exits the European Union (EU).
“We will also ensure continued application to the UK of EU-India Agreements during the Implementation Period following the UK’s departure from the EU, and put in place arrangements to replicate relevant EU-India agreements beyond this period,” said the statement.
The leaders reaffirmed the crucial role of the rules-based multilateral trading system, and the importance of enhancing free, fair, and open trade for achieving sustainable growth and development.
They reaffirmed their commitment to work together with all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to take forward a dialogue under the Joint Working Group on Trade which will support a shared commitment to the global rules-based system and to the WTO’s role in underpinning it.
The UK has been the largest G20 investor in India over the last ten years and India has the fourth largest number of investment projects in the UK.
“We will begin a new dialogue on investment to improve our mutual understanding of priorities and reviewfuture opportunities for cooperation,” it said.
Also, India welcomed the decision by the UK to provide additional support to Indian businesses by establishing a reciprocal Fast Track Mechanism for Indian investments into the UK.
A programme of technical cooperation will help in improving the regulatory environment. The two sides will support initiatives of the business stakeholders, including those proposed by the UK-India CEO Forum which met on 18 April 2018, to achieve shared prosperity for India and the UK.
Both sides welcomed the prominent role played by the City of London in global finance and investment. About 75% of the global value in rupee-denominated “masala bonds” issued on the London Stock Exchange with a third of these being green bonds.
The Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF), a joint initiative by the Governments of India and the UK under India’s flagship National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, will provide financing to the fast-growing Indian renewable energy sector.
With a commitment of GBP120 million from each side, the GGEF is expected to raise up to GBP500 million from institutional investors.
GGEF will help acceerate achieving India’s target of 175GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and also invest in other related sectors such as clean transportation, water and waste management.
“We look forward to future cooperation on energy and infrastructure policy and have agreed to work together on smart urbanisation.
“We also welcomed the establishment of a FinTech dialogue between our two countries – including the proposed new regulatory cooperation agreement.
“Our financial services collaboration will be enhanced by a programme of technical cooperation to help develop markets in insolvency, pensions and insurance,” the statement said.
Further collaboration in these areas will be set out by Finance Ministers when they meet for the tenth round of the Economic and Financial Dialogue later this year.
India and the UK acknowledged the importance of connectivity in today’s globalised world. They underlined that connectivity initiatives must be based on the key principles of good governance, rule of law, openness and transparency; should follow social and environmental standards, principles of financial responsibility, accountable debt-financing practices; and must be pursued in a manner that respects international obligations, standards, best practice and delivers tangible benefits.
The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to lead the fight against climate change. Both sides noted that addressing climate change and promoting secure, affordable and sustainable supplies of energy are key shared priorities, and agreed to cooperate on reducing the cost of development and deployment of clean energy projects through technology innovation, knowledge sharing, capacity building, trade and investment, and project establishment.
The United Kingdom welcomed the pro-active steps taken by India in establishing the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
The leaders noted the successful holding of the joint event between the ISA and London Stock Exchange (LSE) with support from the two governments as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting week (19-20 April).
The event marked the UK joining the Alliance, highlighted the proposed collaboration between the UK and ISA on solar financing, developing next generation solar technologies, and demonstrating UK solar business’s expertise to support the delivery of ISA’s objectives.
The event also highlighted the role of the LSE as a financial organisation that can play a key role in furthering ISA’s objectives towards mobilisation of investment of over US$1,000 billion into solar energy by 2030 in target ISA countries.
“As thriving democracies, we share a desire to work closely together and with all who share our objective to support a rules-based international order that upholds agreed international norms, global peace and stability.”
Together the UK and India are a force for good in an uncertain world.
“We are sharing our experience and knowledge to tackle global challenges. India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Cancer Research UK propose to launch a GBP10 million bilateral research initiative which will focus on low cost approaches to cancer treatment.
UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and DBT will lead the “Farmer Zone” initiative, an open-source data platform for smart agriculture which will use biological research and data to improve the lives of small and marginal farmers anywhere in the world.
DBT will also partner with UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) on the Towards a Sustainable Earth initiative, which seeks to prioritise research and innovation for sustainable and resilient human development.
“We will strengthen our partnership on global development, to accelerate progress to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. We will ensure that the benefits of increased finance, new markets, trade, investment, connectivity and economic integration are shared by as many countries as possible – and by the poorest and most marginalised – to build a more prosperous and safer future.
In 2015, we pledged a new Defence and International Security Partnership (DISP) to make security and defence a cornerstone of our relationship.
“The nature of threats that we face continues to change – so we must be innovative and agile in our response. We shall design, create and manufacture technologies that will address these threats; and our security and military forces will share technologies, capabilities and equipment.” fii-news.com
