According to a press statement released by the Government of India, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed on enhanced cooperation in security and digital technology.
With Japan’s software and India’s hardware, the two nations hope to innovate and promote global innovation through exchanges of each other’s talents in the IT industry and other means. The agreement came on during their 12th summit.
A Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) was inked between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on a Japan-India Digital Partnership.
Under this MoC, the countries aim to tap into the synergies and complementarities between Japan’s “Society 5.0” and India’s initiatives like Digital India, Smart City and Start-up India. It hopes to promote cooperation in areas of next-generation technologies such as AI, and IoT (Internet of Things).
The countries also signed a statement of intent between India’s Policy Commission, that is the National Institute of Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and the Ministry of Economy, and the Trade and Industry (METI), Japan. The statement is on AI and will encourage and develop cooperation on AI technologies.
An Agreement for Cooperation was also signed, between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India and Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), Japan for joint research in interdisciplinary areas for application in Industrial Research. This is to establish a research partnership between CSIR and TIT in areas such as bioscience and IT.
The release said the leaders agreed to launch a two-plus-two meeting format of defence and foreign ministers to make the Indian and Pacific Oceans free and open against the backdrop of China’s stepped-up maritime activities.
Japan and India will promote the expansion of their start-up talent in each other’s markets through a centre set up in India’s technological hub- Bangalore. The Indian government will support Japanese businesses entering the country by connecting them with talent and related companies.
Tokyo will provide US $2.82 billion (316.4 billion yen) in yen-denominated loans this fiscal year. The money will be used to implement the Shinkansen-style high-speed rail (Japan’s bullet train technology) in Western India, and a bridge project in the North-Eastern region of India.
According to a press release by the Prime Minister’s Office, recognising the need for advanced and secure technology, the countries will consider cooperating in the areas of security of digital infrastructure of future networks, framework for Telecom Security etc.
The countries will also partner up to develop electronics manufacturing and will collaborate with Indian and Japanese companies on electronics system design and software technologies.
The partnership will promote corporate and business linkages in the field of IT between India and Japan through initiatives such as matching events, dispatching business missions and BSNL.
A PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) functioning under the under the Indian Ministry of Communications and the NTT-AT of Japan signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in telecommunication.
