Germany to boost R&D ties with India

The four-day International Engineering Technology Fair, the flagship meet of the Confederation of Indian Industries which concluded in Bangalore recently, saw the launch of a campaign by the German federal government titled 'India and Germany- strategic partners for innovation'.

The campaign is aimed at enabling mutually beneficial research & development collaborations between Indian and German institutions and companies. The campaign will present German research institutions, competence networks and companies that are active in the field of R&D as participants in ongoing events and exhibitions in India.

The collaborative R&D will be in areas like biotechnology, energy, health research, production technologies and environmental technologies. Some of the projects that were showcased at the IETF Indian Engineering Technology Fair in Bangalore are:

.The Riverbank filtration network: A sustainable low-cost technology for producing drinking water of good quality by using the river bank as a filter.

.Gas from sugar: A project aimed at producing natural gas from marine methane hydrates to sequester carbon dioxide from power plants and other industrial resources as  carbon dioxide hydrate in marine sediments.

.Renewable energy technologies: A project to enable the development and manufacturing of appropriate renewable energy equipment in India while particularly considering India's specific  infrastructure and requirements.

The German academic exchange programme: This showcased the institutions and programmes for facilitating exchange of students.

The Frankfurt Rhine Main Region was also represented with its hi-tech capabilities.

Verena Mueller, international bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, said, "Though India and Germany have been collaborating for a long time, the relationship lacked a proper framework. This initiative is intended primarily to intensify the cooperation between the two countries.

We would like to introduce German competence in R&D to our Indian partners so as to encourage mutually beneficial partnerships. We would like the partnerships to be in business, academia and R&D."

The German ministry of education and research and India's department of science and technology have also signed a memorandum to jointly allocate a sum of 20 million euros over five years for supporting mutually beneficial R&D projects, through the establishment of the Indo German Science and Technology Centre in Delhi.

Under the campaign, several events will be held in India over the next 18 months. These would be in the form of German delegations to India, participation in key trade events, conferences and road shows.