Dutch help to double farmers’ income
King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands said that India and Netherlands could share their experiences and approach was in terms of Public Private Partnerships.
In the Netherlands experience, India was a partner you could trust, and both could work together in areas such as Agriculture and Food Security, Water management and Climate Change, said the King.
The two countries complement each other in terms of technology and taken together, they make a great team, he said at the inauguration of the 25 edition of DST-CII India Netherlands Technology Summit at New Delhi on 15 Oct 2019.
Speaking at the Inaugural session, Science & Technology Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan highlighted the shared heritage and common beliefs between both countries that has led to further intensify cooperation and build a sound bilateral relationship.
“Countries such as ours need to combine forces to seek sustainable answers to pressing global issues. These include poverty, hunger, job creation, energy security, human rights, gender inequality. At the same time, we need to work together on climate change, terrorism, and depletion of natural resources”.
Recalling the centuries old partnership between India and Netherlands, the Minister stated that traditional items of trade between them had given way to more high technology ones.
India and the Netherlands were celebrating 10 years of cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation space, especially in areas such as Urban Water Management, Smart Energy Grids, and anti-microbial resistance, among others, Vardhan highlighted.
The Netherlands could help India in its quest to double farmers’ income by improving water technology in the farm sector.
The Minister also emphasized upon the strong interests that both India and the Netherlands have in each other’s economies. He said that Netherlands is India’s 28th largest trading partner globally and 6th largest trading partner from the European Union.
Dr. Vardhan further added that the country has been the gateway for over 20% of all of India’s exports to the European Union. Between 2000 and 2017, the Netherlands invested US$24.31 billion in India, ranking amongst the top 5 investors in the country.
The Minister further informed that India too was amongst the top-5 investors in Netherlands.
Additionally, the Minister informed that India has nurtured over 40,000 startups over the last 5 years, of which about 31 have achieved the Unicorn status.
“We wish to nurture this culture further. We are encouraging new solutions based on technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence”.
Ineke Dezentje Hamming, VP, Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers VNO-NCW noted that the two countries could work together on areas such as dredging, agri and food processing and start-ups among others.
Entrepreneurship and technology have no borders and Netherlands was ready to join India in its quest for development, said Hamming.
Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, pointed out that India has been using technology to try and achieve its aspirational goals.
He was of the view that the days of leap-frogging were long gone and the time was now right to “pole-vault” in the domain of technology and innovation.
In this context, he felt that the Netherlands could help India and some key areas of cooperation could include affordable medical science, Big Data, Internet of Things, Water and Food Processing among others.
Vikram Kirloskar, President, CII elaborated that India and the Netherlands have entered into several meaningful collaborations such as the cleaning of the Ganga River and cleaning of the Barapullah drain in Delhi and added that both countries had much to gain in collaborating on mutual projects such as these.
A booklet titled “Science, Technology and Innovation Partnership” was also released by Mona Keijzer, Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and Dr. Vardhan.
The 2-day Summit provided a high profile and wide-ranging platform for businesses, knowledge institutions and government to forge partnership and boost innovation, investment and trade. ‘NEXUS’ is the central theme of the summit, discussing how to co-create on pioneering innovative solutions for global challenges related to water, food and good health for all.
Among the many themes during the Summit, the core focus was on Cross-cutting Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), NEXUS of Water-Agriculture-Health, Entrepreneurship, Enabling Technologies, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cybersecurity, Design Thinking, Education, Geo Data & Space. fiinews.com
