21st Technology Summit &Expo ‘Smart Technologies for Sustainable Growth’ Country Partner-South Korea
17th -18th December 2015
The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in association with Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. Of India and Ministry of Science organized the 21st Technology Summit &Expo ‘Smart Technologies for Sustainable Growth’ on 17th -18th December 2015 at Hotel Lalit, New Delhi. South Korea was the Country Partner & lead an ICT delegation to participate at the Summit. Mrs. Sakshi Pahuja, Associate Prof. from ECE department of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended the event.
The focus sectors of the summit were:
1. Energy & Environment
2. Affordable Housing
3. Water
4. Transportation
5. Agriculture & Food Processing
6. Healthcare
7. ICT
8. Chemicals & Materials
9. Manufacturing
10. Electronic System Design & Manufacturing
The participants of the summit included a large number of exhibitors from India and partner countries for business networking. These included Technology driven companies, R&D / Academic Institutions, R&D and tech-commercialization funding agencies, Consulting firms, Training agencies, Testing / Certification agencies and Federal / State / City Governments & Agencies.
Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII welcomed the dignitaries and briefly introduced the objective of the summit. He said that the summit was to strengthen and scale up global science, technology and innovation partnerships with Indian government, Indian industry and Indian institutions to forge joint venture, joint R&D, technology transfer, investment, etc. The theme for this summit was ‘Smart Technologies for Sustainable Growth’.
Dr. Gopichand Katragadda, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology and Group Chief Technology Officer, Tata Sons Limited. He stated that the world is now entering third wave of technology transformation, where smart technology becomes a key part of products.
The chief guest of the event was Mr. Y. S Chowdhary, Minister of State for Science & Technology &Earth Sciences, Government of India. He stated that smart technologies are the key to a smarter, sustainable future - helping us make products and services more efficient, design better buildings.
Mr. Minsik Ahn, Minister, Embassy of Republic of Korea, highlighted that the size of the Korean delegation participating at the summit was proof of the vibrancy of the bilateral relationship in this field. He felt that it is the time for action in theKorea –India relationaship. He also stated that programmes announced by the GOI such as the ‘Development of smart cities’, ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ offered opportunities for Korean and Indian companies to work together.
Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy, Executive Chairman, Cyient, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Hyderabad spoke about the need for both Indian industry as well as the government to step up their investment in R&D. He felt that there is a need to focus on design capabilities in India. He observed that Indian industry’s spend on R&D was growing by 35% p.a. and felt that this trend needed to continue for some time.
Dr. Ra Sang Won, Director of Center for International Affairs, National Research Foundation of Korea added that at the backdrop of demographic dividend of young population, global shortage of skilled manpower in coming decades, “Make in India” and “Smart Cities” at policy level, these countries cannot be at a denial role or operate on a superficial level any more. There is an urgent requirement to align, partner and discover a common ground and establish real linkages for much needed economic and social impact for nation building and sustainability.
The two days seminar also hosted for the following topics for panel discussions:
1. CTOs Panel Discussion
2. Energy & Environment
3. Affordable Housing
4. Water
5. Transportation
6. Agriculture & Food Processing
7. Healthcare
8. ICT
9. Chemicals & Materials
10. Manufacturing
11. Electronic System Design & Manufacturing
12. Technology Entrepreneurship
Eminent personalities from different industries were the panelists like Mr Anjan Das, Executive Director Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Dr Aravind S. Bharadwaj, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology (2015-16) andDr Arabinda Mitra, Adviser & Head, International (Bilateral) Cooperation Department of Science & Technology Government of India. The event ended on a very positive note with the discussion of how smart technologies could bring sustainable growth in cities within India. The partner delegation from the Republic of Korea was deeply impressed with the intellect and focus on technological solutions that India possessed.