Arun Jaitley in Moscow: India and Russia to cooperate in science and technology

Moscow:  India and Russia on Wednesday identified a number of key areas to bolster cooperation in the science and technology sector including space and marine technologies, IT and deep ocean engineering.

The areas were chosen at the first meeting of India-Russia Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation which was co-chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley and Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogizin.

At the meeting at the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, both the sides finalised the working procedures for the Committee to ensure speedy decision making in implementing joint projects, official sources said.

Describing Russia as a partner of choice for India in high technology sector, Jaitley said the new mechanism will further energise the bilateral partnership as it will help in opening up advanced areas of cooperation which will benefit the future generations.

The meeting of the Joint Committee took place along with the fifth edition of TECHNOPROM, an annual forum focusing on innovation and technology.

Addressing the forum, Rogizin praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and said it was an inspiration for Russia to launch its own version of drive to enhance industrialisation.

Russia has launched a “Do It In Russia” initiative to promote local manufacturing and technology development.

“We recognise that in today’s fast moving world of technological innovation and information driven business models, manufacturing can thrive only if we are able to establish a symbiotic relationship between innovation and enterprise,” Jaitley said while addressing the forum.

Sources said that India is considering to launch a nano satellite of Samara State University on an Indian launch vehicle.

The meeting of the Joint S&T committee finalised a range of bilateral areas of cooperation including space and marine technologies, IT, deep ocean engineering as well as modelling and simulation, sources said.

They said that cooperation in these areas would be undertaken through futuristic projects with participation of research centres and innovative industrial enterprises of both the countries.

Jaitley, who arrived on Wednesday on a three-day visit to Russia, will travel to Moscow to co-chair India-Russia Inter Governmental Commission on Military Technological Cooperation on 23 June.