STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Finland Minister of Education and Culture, Petri Honkonen called on Union Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh at North Block here on Monday to seek enhanced bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).
He was accompanied by a high level delegation which later held a separate meeting with the Indian delegation in the presence of the two Ministers.
While, Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated India’s focus on collaboration in StartUps, the Finland Minister was full of praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for management of Covid pandemic and also the efforts of the Union Government of India in ensuring development of vaccines and vaccination for all the countrymen. India and Finland agreed to carry mutual cooperation between the two countries to a new level in a number of areas of bilateral as well as global interests. Two nations decided to enhance cooperation in areas such as Digital Partnership in Future ICT, Future Mobile Technologies and Digital Education. The two countries also emphasised on having institutionalised joint working groups on areas of mutual interest.
This was reiterated by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and the Finland Minister Petri Honkonen. Dr Jitendra said, the bilateral STI collaboration between the two countries is an attempt to stimulate innovative R&D projects that address a specific need or challenge; demonstrate high industrial relevance and commercial potential; and aim to deliver benefit to all participants, and more broadly, to both nations. Dr Jitendra Singh conveyed to the Finland Minister that India is keen to develop research collaborations with Finnish R&D institutions and technology collaboration with Finnish Industry especially focusing on the application of Quantum Computing. Honkonen assured Dr Jitendra Singh that Finland is keen to cooperate with India in 5G, Environment and Clean Technologies,Bio-based Economy, BioBanks andAffordable Healthcare.