Support sort for Start-ups and innovations
Russian Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Alexey Gruzdev, has called for innovative business strategies to raise Russia-India trade to US$30 billion by 2025 from the current level of US$7.5 billion.
A special group has been constituted within the Russia-India inter-governmental group to identify barriers to trade and investment between the two countries.
Removal of obstacles to trade would be given high priority by the two governments in order to improve upon the 21.5% growth in two-way trade recorded last year, he pointed out.
The Russian and Indian economies enjoy complementarities in several areas, including agriculture, machine building and energy sectors.
“These are the areas that we will concentrate on this year” to give a fillip to bilateral trade and investment, he said at an interactive meeting in New Delhi on 19 Mar 2018 with Indian industry representatives. It was organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)..
The minister sought support for innovation-driven companies, especially start-ups which could act as a bridge between large Indian companies and foreign investors.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from both countries could also play a critical role in this regard, he stressed.
Areas that needed to be addressed for giving an impetus to bilateral trade were connectivity, engagement between Russian regions and Indian states, collaboration in the energy sector, high-tech cooperation and cooperation in defence and security, said Vinod Jacob, Joint Secretary, Economic Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs.
RUSSOFT President V. Makarov presented ICT proposals of Russian companies for joint projects with India.
These include design and manufacture of ICT hardware and software, deployment of data communication networks, creation of an automated multi-lingual translation system and a multi-modal biometric personal identification and authentication system, he said.
Sun Group Chairman Nand Khemka gave an Indian industry perspective on doing business with Russia.
He said the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme offered opportunities for diversifying trade with other countries and Russia should take advantage of this investment avenue.
There were real opportunities, he added, in aerospace, helicopters and shipbuilding for civil and defence use.
FICCI Secretary General Sanjaya Baru said that FICCI was committed to strengthening B2B relations between India and Russia.
The meeting, he said, provided a real opportunity to take the two-way trade and investment relations forward. fii-news.com
