OdishaLIVE Bureau
India and Britain recently formed an India-UK Tech Alliance and signed an agreement to jointly hone skills of IT workforce and promote innovation in both the countries.
“The agreement between Indian IT industry apex body Nasscom and British trade body TechUK will increase collaboration on skills and new technologies, supporting policy development and encouraging innovation,” read a statement after the agreement was signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM Modi was on a three day official visit to Britain for bilateral talks with his counterpart Theresa May and to attend the biannual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on April 19-20.
“The partnership between the trade bodies would support the IT sectors in both the countries by developing links, networks and joint platforms,” said the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) in the statement. The new partnership will also promote the growth of skills needed for artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics and cybersecurity. “The partnership will include a UK-India Tech Hub, which will identify and pair businesses, venture capital, universities and others to access routes to markets for British and Indian tech companies,” it said.
British Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion Baroness Fairhead, who was present on the occasion, said technology was at the heart of the new relationship between the two countries.
“We welcome TechUK and Nasscom’s commitment to working together to strengthen skills in both countries that will be key to driving economic growth, development and prosperity,” she said.
TechUK Chief Executive Julian David said the Alliance would be a key partner for the government to provide a sounding board and expert advice for policy development to ensure that the growth is nurtured in the sector and beyond. “India is a key strategic partner for the UK with world-class digital skills. Deepening our engagement will open up opportunities for business in both countries and help ensure we maximise the benefits of technology for our societies and citizens.”
“This is an important milestone for both the British and Indian tech sectors. We collaborate better to provide people with the skills and tools they need to flourish in the new world of work,” he said.
According to Nasscom’s new President Debjani Ghosh, the agreement will equip the IT workforce with skills in emerging technology fields such as AI and robotics. “Our FutureSkills initiative will be the basis for collaboration between our IT industries. It is imperative to train the workforce for future jobs and remain relevant in the new global economy,” she added.
India and The UK have also committed to holding a second UK-India Tech Summit to build on the 2016 Summit the Prime Minister attended in India. This will bring together leading tech innovators and scientists from both the UK and India to look at pressing issues such as tech governance, including data privacy issues.
It will also directly support the delivery of the UK Digital Strategy by giving businesses a direct link to India’s digital sector, positioning the UK as India’s global partner and destination of choice in tech. India already invests significantly in UK tech with close to 30 per cent of Indian companies’ 110,000 employees in the UK working in tech and telecoms.
India and The UK will also commission a joint study as the first step towards establishing a new UK-India Advanced Manufacturing Centre, which would benefit both the UK and India through our extensive supply-chain networks. The event saw the announcement of the extension of the Super Priority Visa (SPV) in two further cities in India – Pune and Bangalore. The SPV is a paid-for service which means eligible customers can receive a visa decision within 24 hours. This brings the total number of locations Indian nationals can use the SPV service to five.
IT spending in India is set to jump on opportunities that have been unveiled by the government in 2015-16. India is forecast to become the second largest market for IT by 2018. The highest spending will be in the telecommunications Services (37.3 per cent), followed by devices (33.7 per cent per cent), IT services (19.2 per cent, software (6.7 per cent) and 3.1 Data Centre Systems per person.
In addition to the UK-India Tech Partnership, Prime Minister Theresa May and Prime Minister Modi also confirmed new commercial deals worth £1 billion.
