Washington, Sep 14 (IANS) Ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit, a high level US innovation delegation is in India to identify concrete projects for immediate investment and market delivery to address specific needs.
Led by White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and the Secretary of State’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, Alec Ross, the delegation of US business and thought leaders is visiting New Delhi and Rajasthan Sep 13-16.
The technology delegation is designed to leverage US and Indian expertise to help produce real-world technology solutions in three areas – energy, education, and e-governance, the US state department said in Washington.
‘Through meetings with Indian business and government leaders, and visits to innovative Indian organizations, we aim to spur productive discussion and thought around identifying new projects,’ it said.
The delegation aims to deliver projects ready for investment and ultimate market entry, the department spokesman stated noting, ‘All projects will be characterized by strong US-India collaboration and a clear path to execution.’
‘Project ideas can take many forms, including public-private partnerships, private-private joint ventures; and working groups dedicated to finding new ways to tackle big problems,’ he said.
‘Given that the US and India share strong cultures of creative idea generation and innovative risk-taking, we are optimistic about the potential of new projects arising from the delegation.’
This delegation is an important first step of the US-India Innovation Exchange, announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna during the June 4 US-India Strategic Dialogue, the department said.
‘As a product of the US-India Strategic Dialogue, this Innovation Exchange reinforces President Obama’s and Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh’s commitment to strengthening our robust relationship through partnerships in the many areas in which we have common interests,’ it said.
‘Technology is one area where the US and India share not only common interests but also common innovation-based cultures devoted to cutting-edge research and visionary entrepreneurship,’ the spokessman said.
Both the US and India are recognized global leaders in a variety of technology sectors, from software and computing, to telecommunications and energy, it noted.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
