Continuous and remarkable economic growth has allowed India to emerge as a global power, increasing its presence in the world economy. Unlike most economies to post negative growth at the height of the global crisis, India is actually expected to achieve an impressive growth rate exceeding five percent in 2009. Korea has world class competitiveness manufacturing devices or equipment. Plus, Korea is the 12 largest economy in the world. India's economy is growing rapidly and is a major player in software, services, manufacturing and research. Korea and India already enjoy a strong relationship in trade, and many Korean companies have a significant presence in India. In addition, with India’s famous city of Bangalore is well known for outsourcing sector, in which armies of twenty something graduates perform global IT outsourcing industry, inputting data and managing software. By collaborating with Korea these two economies are well on the edge to profit from producing a huge amount of synergy. Korea will be able to boast of its advantage in manufacturing industries and on the other hand India has the strength in knowledge and service industries.
Both countries will collaborate on and propel India-Korea to foster trade volume and investment, exchange of people, culture, technology and economic political inter-dependence. In addition, the areas of cooperation are transportation, robotics and engineering sciences; nutrition and food safety, renewable energy, chemical and biochemical technologies, health and medicine science material science, material science and technology, nanotechnology and information technology. How will science and technology cooperation work between Korea and India First, both governments need to be strengthened. Second, cooperation between the countries research centers. Third, both countries need to build a platform for science and technology cooperation. Fourth, need to implement promotional programs such as technology expos and technology job fairs. Last, need to look to the future as humans’ mistakes and difficulties due arise. That is why there needs to be cooperation policy and government support.
On January 18, 2010, Korea welcomed several delegates from India and Korean delegates' as well in Seoul, at the Millennium Seoul Hilton hotel in the Grand Ballroom. Several dignitaries from the state government were personally present to promote India, Ambassador Skand R Tayal, C. Rajashekhar the Minister of Embassy of India, Prof Ramchandra B. Pode, Mr. Zackaria Sait the Vice President of TATA Daewoo, Prof Sivaram Arepalli, Mr. Chander Wanchoo the Sr Manager of Global Business at SK C&C and Prof Deb Kumar Mukherjee. Also in attendance were a panel of Korean experts on India, including Prof Emanuel Pastreich, Mr. Rim Chemin the Vice Minister for Industry and Technology Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Kang Gye-doo the President of Daedeok Innopolis, Dr. Suh Joong-hae of Korea Development Institute, Deok Soon Yim from Gyeonggi Science & Technology Center, Mr. Chang Kook Hyun of IASP Secretariat Director General, Dr. Young Sang Cho the Principal Research Scientist and Bonghoon Kim Ph.D. and CEO of MAXtin Business Advisory.
The theme was best summed up by the president of Daedeok Innopolis Kang Gye-doo, He said: “We think of the cooperation between India and Korea as the greatest blue ocean in the world economy today, a field of infinite potential limited only by our own imagination.” The Minister of the Indian Embassy C. Rajshekhar pointed out that the economy needed a gentle push and the founding fathers of modern India were quick and astute to realize the role of science and technology. Today, Korea is concerned about losing their competitive edge as other countries are closing the technological gap such as China. This could mean that India’s IT could be the right fit for efficient and productivity. Counselor Rajasekhar said, “It is the marriage between India and IT.” IT training using IT applications in English language is a new area of interest for Korea. Just last year, Wipro trained hundreds of Korean youngsters in India. As for Korea, specifically, Hyundai Motors built a plant near Chennai and other Korean companies such as LG and Samsung continue to increase their investment in India. A notable example is Tata Daewoo who was successful in entering Korea and been producing commercial vehicles that are dominating the Korean market. Their philosophy at Tata is “Leadership with Trust.” Space technology is also a new avenue for India and Korea to develop commercial space launch, remote sensing, mapping and GPS based navigation. In addition biotechnology and green technology these are other areas of potential interest in Korea. Counselor Rajasekhar made another insightful comment by stating, “By working together sky is the limit. Seize the opportunity – now when the Korean government and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are additional facilitating factors.”
Finding new ideas
His Excellency Skand R. Tayal, Ambassador of India, made a special address. President Lee Myung-bak will be the chief guest for our Republic Day on January 26, 2010. He reassured by saying, "This is a momentous occasion for India-Korea relations and I am sure this will take us to a higher level." These two countries could further synergize cooperation in Science and Technology. By collaborating on Green growth, solar energy, nanotechnology and information technology with India considering their strength in basic fundamental research and Korea's excellence in transferring technology to commercial use. First, green growth Korea has increased their R&D to five percent of its GDP by 2012 and with the presidential council to embark on new green growth engines program. His Excellency stated, "India is very impressed by Korea's focus on green technology and renewable energy. Second, solar energy together they could increase solar energy by 20,000 MW in the next 12 years. In addition the government has already set a budget of US$1 billion for solar energy. Third, nanotechnology has been projected as the biggest new revolution after the IT wave. His Excellency said, "The Indian Government has decided to build a Nano Science and Technology so that India will emerge as a global knowledge hub in this field." With this collaboration we hope to be able to supply high-end equipment to various industries in India. Our dream is to see India as a leader in nanotechnology by the year 2020." Fourth, information technology will focus on telecommunications and mobility, semi-conductors and fusion technology between software and hardware. His Excellency clarified by finding new ideas will happen with New Opportunities in Science & Technology Collaboration between India and Republic of Korea. "I am confident with President Lee's visit to India it will provide the catalytic impetus to further deepen and enhance our cooperation in Science and Technology."
Chander Wanchoo the Sr Manager of Global Business at SK C&C spoke about it is just not the lack of man power in Korea, but also the global language which is English. He stated, "Strength of skilled manpower comes from the ability to communicate in English." He went on to say, "India will be the world's largest speaking nation of English in 2010." This will create enough supply and demand to meet Korea's needs. This will help internationally and open new doors for India too. By working closely together at the education level this will also help the two countries to become even stronger. In addition, CEPA is widely expected to transform the relations between India and the Republic of Korea and is a major landmark in the growing bilateral ties. The noticeable rise of India over the last ten years has made the economic and technological relations between Korea and India a remarkably diverse and vital part of the world economy. The New Opportunities in S&T Collaboration between India and Korea seeks out strategies to address this significant development in the world economy.
Deok Soon Yim, Ph.D., Research fellow at Gyeonggi Science and Technology Center spoke about Korea and India signed a CEPA in Seoul on August 7, 2009, heralding greater economic exchanges between the two countries. The free trade agreement is expected to take effect from January 2010. By including the possibility of aggressively utilizing the globally acknowledged IT manpower and software technology of India, Korea will be able to improve competitiveness in its own manufacturing sector. Today, scientific and technological research is an international endeavor. In many ways, globalization of science and technology is the trend for both countries. Deok Soon Yim claimed, "Korea and India are very much complementary countries in all aspects, including science and technology." He further stated the point, "Not like other foreign countries, India is not competing with Korea in the global market. Instead both countries have different strengths."
Another speaker was Prof Deb Kumar Mukherjee from Kyunghee University. He outlined that there needs to be a form of higher education and the opportunities are "not so rosy in India." Education is lagging in India because of poor infrastructure, the need for upgraded facilities for quality teaching and research. He claimed, "India's ranking in higher education is far from satisfactory and compared to South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan have made large amount of progress in science and technology." He continued by stating, "Indian students only focus on math and science." There needs to be more government funding on research and development in India. Furthermore, the manpower in Korea is low and India has looked at other countries for technology, but did not consider Russia or US. He finished by saying, "Look for a new nation of the land of the morning calm."
Dr. Lakhvinder Singh for Indo-Korean Business and Policy Forum also, made a special address. He concluded the program by making a captivating point, which was; "We need new ideas, need to look to the future and to promote Korea by supporting institutes and organizing many conferences." This was the whole purpose of the New Opportunities in Science & Technology Collaboration between India and Republic of Korea forum. The Ambassador continued to say, "New Opportunities of S&T Collaboration between India and Republic of Korea will generate new ideas and open new frontiers of productive collaboration."
The partnership between the two countries has been gaining greater momentum, particularly over the last few years. Korea attaches great importance to advancing relations with India and will be demonstrated during President Lee Myung-bak's visit to India on January 26, 2010 on India's Republic Day. Thus, Korea and India will collaborate on issues related to the economy, environment and technology from which both sides can benefit most directly. This will foster new ideas and bring a stronger bond between these two incredible nations that will bring a new era of energy, technology and information.
After the presentations were finished, the delegates adjourned to speak privately with one another, and to have a buffet specially prepared by noted chefs.
