Indian R&D, beacon of hope for third world countries

Hyderabad: Chief guest Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, delivered the Keynote Address, at the Special Session on the concluding day of the two day 'Global R & D Summit 2019', organised by FICCI in partnership with the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, at Hyderabad, on Friday.

Also present on the occasion were Guests of Honour, Nkandu Luo, Minister of Higher Education, Government of the Republic of Zambia; Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Science & Technology, Govt.

of the Republic of Ethiopia; S K Varshney, Head-International Cooperation (Bilateral), Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India; Kampeta Sayinzoga, Director General, National Industrial Research & Development Agency, Kigali, Rwanda; Ajit Rangnekar, DG -Research and Innovation Circle, Hyderabad, Govt. of Telangana Initiative; T Murlidharan, Chairman-FICCI Telangana State; Nirankar Saxena, Deputy Secretary General, FICCI and Munish Gupta, Advisor- FICCI India Rwanda Innovation Growth Program.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Harsh Vardhan said, India's science and technology achievements have steadfastly triggered India's growth and delivered socio-economic development. The vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is to share our technology and innovations for shared prosperity of our partner nations in Africa. India wishes to also create bilateral and multilateral with likeminded South-South cooperation and partners to forge collaboration to ensure sustainable growth in the developing countries.

The Minister added: I am delighted to note that this year's partner continent is Africa. The Ministry of Science and Technology, in India has been conducting multiple programs in and with Africa, implemented by FICCI's center for innovation, Science and Technology commercialization called FICCI CTAP. For several decades India has provided scholarships to several African students. Researchers and Fellow are invited to specialised institutions. We have helped this model and have established institutions of collaborative research, capacity building and enterprise development.

Just two years ago India began a new initiative, I would like to particularly mention of the first ever and unique technology sharing and transfer program, the India Rwanda Innovation growth Program, that has successfully demonstrated that validated, robust, affordable technology led innovations from India can be adopted and adapted and deployed for triggering sustainable inclusive growth in our strategic partner country of Rwanda. I am delighted to know that in the very first year this pilot program matched 11 enterprises and Institutions from India with 14 enterprises and Institutions in Rwanda.

The program is unique in that it assesses and addresses the needs of the recipient country. In the first year the India Rwanda Program include 100 per cent compostable sanitary that are critical to educating the girl child, women empowerment through livelihood creation and most importantly ensuring female hygiene and health, besides developing a full blown leather park with the entire value chain and the last mile delivery of an affordable high speed broadband that today is a must to fulfill the aspirations of the masses and ensure provision of services to them. India is now proud to scale this program to benefit another important partner Ethiopia. I hope as an extension of these programs we are able to stimulate collaborations in R&D and further innovate to potentially deliver present and future solutions.

T Murlidharan, in his welcome address said, India, Africa, collaboration is a classic example of mutual cooperation. The focus of this Summit is collaboration amongst various stake holders, to address the vital issues of research and most importantly commercialisation. Innovation and R&D are the key drivers of economic growth today. FICCI has established good working relationship with over 45 countries for collaboration in Science and Technology.

The Summit is a significant annual initiative of the FICCI with the core objective of promoting R and D in the field of Science and Technology. It is hosted in a different city every year and this year's venue is Hyderabad. Each year the partner country at the Summit varies, and this year's Partner Countries are the Nations from the African Continent. The Focus sectors of this year's Summit are Agriculture, Health Care, Food Processing and Clean Energy. The Focus sectors are determined on the basis of the Sectors, Partner Countries evince interest in. Large delegations comprising of Ministers and senior officials of Ethopia, Rwanda and Zambia, along with delegates from other African counties are attending the Summit.