The 26th edition of DST- CII Technology Summit will be organised by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) from 7th – 9th December 2020. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences, Government of India, will inaugurate the summit and the digital exhibition on 7th December 2020.Mr. Manuel Heitor, Hon’ble Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Government of Portugal, will be the Guest of Honour at the Summit and address the Inaugural session on 7th December 2020.
The digital conference would bring together global innovators, technology leaders, disruptive entrepreneurs, policymakers, industry stalwarts, and eminent academicians from India and partner countries to share their experiences, and virtually everyone directly or indirectly associated with the technology sectors.
The curtain raiser of the DST-CII Technology Summit with Portugal as the Partner Country was held virtually on 1st December 2020, which was addressed by Professor Sharma through a video message.
Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary DST, highlighted that DST-CII Technology Summit has served as a platform to forge and strengthen bilateral partnerships, led to the formation of new joint ventures, and created new avenues for collaboration to boost trade and investment between the two countries, at the curtain raiser event of India Portugal Technology Summit 2020.
“In these summits, DST has facilitated co-creation of knowledge, two-way technology transfer, collaborative R&D projects, and enhanced market access between India and the partner countries, industries, and research institutions,” Professor Sharma said in a virtual message at the curtain raiser event.
He pointed out that DST has been the nodal department in steering the India- Portugal joint science and technology partnership. “We are now poised for the development of scientific and technological cooperation between India and Portuguese researchers and strengthen the scientific partnership between research groups from each country. We have received about 450 joint projects against the latest India Portugal joint call demonstrating great interest in the partnership,” Professor Sharma added.
The Ambassador of India to Portugal, Ms. K. Nandini Singla, said, “The 400-year-old partnership between India & Portugal in shared culture, history & kinship is turning modern with partnerships in science & technology. We have added 20 agreements in the last 4 years in areas like marine research, robotics, waterways, cleantech & more. India-Portugal trade crossed 1Billion$ mark in 2019, and Indian investments in Portugal crossed $350 million. Looking at the COVID vaccine on horizon, our collaboration is all the more important.”
The Ambassador of Portugal to India, His Excellency Carlos Pereira Marques, pointed out that Innovation is an absolute priority for India and Portugal, both the countries excel in these areas and, in spite of different dimensions, have achieved high level of excellence, adding that the summit represents unique opportunity to create strategies and develop innovative projects of collaboration in key areas such as trade, agriculture, healthcare, Industry, and research.”
Prof Helena Pereira, President, Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, highlighted that India and Portugal share long historical ties, and now it is being enhanced in Technology. “FCT & DST earlier launched a joint call in research with 2 million Euros budget for different knowledge areas relevant for science & society like biotechnology, energy, climate change, disaster management, marine sciences, and technology. We now engage in several areas and hope for many joint projects soon,” she added.
The focus areas of the summit are Watertech, Agritech, Healthtech, cleantech, energy, climate change, and IT/ ICT & Emerging Technologies, Innovation & Start-ups, Space-Ocean. The conference and digital exhibition will also cover tech talks and business sessions on several other technology areas and provide a corridor for showcasing and collaborating unbeatable business and technology solutions of India and the partner countries.
Several other countries like UK, USA, Sweden, Israel, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Japan, Canada, Australia, and Singapore have been invited to participate in the Summit.
For over 25 years, this yearly summit has been instrumental in providing significant opportunities to forge and foster global technology partnerships. The heads of the partnering countries have addressed the technology summits in the past- a significant testimony of considering science and technology as one of the topmost priorities in the world.
