India welcomes tech partnership with UK

India welcomed the United Kingdom initiative of establishing a UK-India Tech Hub in the country as part of growing bilateral technology partnership.

The Tech Hub will bring together hi-tech companies to create investment and export opportunities and provide a new platform to share the very best technologies and advance policy collaboration including on future mobility, advanced manufacturing and healthcare under India's aspirational districts' programme.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with his British counterpart Theresa May this morning and they discussed various topics.

"We will establish a series of new partnerships between UK regional and Indian State-level tech clusters, to drive joint innovation and R&D. With the support of both Governments we have also announced an India-UK Tech CEO Alliance; signed a Tech UK/NASSCOM MoU focused on skills and new technologies, including industry-led apprenticeship schemes; and launched the new UK Fintech Rocketship Awards to boost fintech and wider entrepreneurship in India," said in a joint statement.

Also, both sides agreed to deploy the best of British and Indian talent in science, research and technology to address priority global challenges.

The UK is India's second largest international research and innovation partner. The UK-India Newton-Bhabha programme will have lifted joint research and innovation awards to over £400 million by 2021, since 2008.

"We will also deepen our joint working relationship on health to make the UK and India safer and healthier places to live, including through scaling up and rolling out AI and digital health technologies," the statement further said.

Prime Minister Modi, who is on a five-day tour to three nations, arrived at the Heathrow airport of the United Kingdom on April 17 to take part in the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.