“India is making Science and Tech more relevant for society by using technology in innovative ways to solve its developmental issues.” said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment,Forest and Climate Change while addressing the Valedictory Session of the India-Italy Technology Summit here today.In this context he also called for greater cooperation between India and Italy.The Minister highlighted the need to strengthen the India – Italy bilateral partnership by bringing in more participation of industry and techno-entrepreneurs from both the sides in addition to researchers. He was of the view that Italy has had wide experience in applied research and has the ability to convert the fruits of research into commercial technologies and the two countries could form a partnership in this regard.Valedictory Session of 24th India – Italy Technology Summit was jointly addressed by the Prime Ministers of India and Italy.
In his address, H. E. Mr. Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy stated that India and Italy were working together in areas such as energy, railways and healthcare. He was of the view that there were many new areas of cooperation which were opening up. These included sectors such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles among others.The Prime Minister stated that Italy wanted to share the expertise that it has developed in areas such as conservation of heritage monuments in India. Another major focus area during this visit was cooperation in the design sector in India.Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology highlighted that India – Italy Cooperation in Science and Technology had been going on for four decades now and had diversified to cover a wide variety of areas. Currently, he stated, there were 30 ongoing project that India was conducting with Italy.Mr. Vincenzo De Luca, Director General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Shri Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President, CII presented the key findings of the one-and-a-half-day Summit.