India will host the 24th edition of Technology Summit with Italy as the partner country. The two-day summit will be inaugurated on 29th October, 2018 by the Union Minister for Science& Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Prof. Michele Geraci, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Economic Development, Italy. Valedictory session of the summit will be addressed by the Prime Ministers of India & Italy. Aerospace, Cleantech, Cultural Heritage, Education, Heathcare, ICT and Renewables are the seven focus sectors for this year’s summit.There will be 11 Conference sessions, 10 Tech Talks, 500+ B2B meetings, 10 Business Presentations, Digital exposition during the Summit. Key scientists, academics and Industry leaders from both countries will be addressing the Tech Summit.
This is the first time that Italy has been selected as partner country for this prestigious event. Italian Prime Minister will be leading a 200-strong delegation for the Summit comprising business leaders, scientists, heads of research and scientific organisations and technocrats.
The Summit is envisaged to serve as a wide-ranging knowledge-business partnership platform. Companies, institutions and government agencies from India and Partner Country (Italy)will endeavor to forgetechnology transfers / joint ventures / R&D partnershipswith an aim to increase bilateral trade & investments. The Summit will also facilitate a comprehensive convergence of key elements of knowledge economy (science, technology & innovation; research & development; and higher education) of India and Italy.
It is envisaged that the Technology Summit will help in strengthening, expanding and deepening India-Italy relationship in multiple ways. It will also strengthen the collaborations between industries and universities of both countries and would lead to scaling-up of the existing bilateral industrial R&D programs.
Background:
Genesis of this Tech Summit lies in the first CII Technology Summit organised 23 years back in 1995 with an aim to facilitate global technology collaborations. After a few successful yearly summits, CII became partner with the Department of Science & Technology in organising these Summits since 2004.
Yearly Technology Summit benefitted Indian industry and academic & research institutions immensely in forging collaborations with global partners, including policy making which triggered private sector’s investment in R&D and technology significantly.
In the past 18 years, several countries have become partner countries in Technology Summit. These include Israel, Germany, France, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia, Canada, ASEAN block, Belarus, Finland, Spain, South Korea and USA. In 2016, the Technology Summit had UK as the partner country and prime ministers of India and UK had addressed the summit.
Some of the outcomes of previous technology summits are:
Stronger S&T collaborations with partner countries
Large number of technology tie-ups between Indian and Partner Country’s industry and research institutions
Bilateral industrial R&D programs launched with Israel, Canada, Italy, Spain, Taiwan, S. Korea, UK, Finland
Many industry-led collaborative R&D projects funded through Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (www.gita.org.in)