Businesses Receive UK-India Partnership Boost

A new £1.6 million competition opening today will give high tech companies from the UK the chance to work with Indian partners on innovative healthcare and technology solutions in India.

Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency is funding the competition with match funding from the Indian government, and it will be administered through the Newton Fund with India, called the Newton-Bhabha Fund.

Projects should address one or the following challenges:

· clean technology

· affordable healthcare

· electronic system design and manufacture (ESDM) technology solutions for urban, energy, healthcare, infrastructure, disaster management and environmental challenges

Making the announcement at the India-UK Tech Summit in Delhi, Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said: “This competition will encourage innovative technology businesses from the UK and India to collaborate on cutting-edge solutions to the healthcare and environmental challenges India faces.”

Today’s competition opening is an excellent example how UK companies can forge new international partnerships with important markets such as India.

Welcoming the announcement at the Summit, Innovate UK Chief Executive Ruth McKernan said: “Today’s competition opening is an excellent example how UK companies can forge new international partnerships with important markets such as India. We are extremely pleased to be working closely with the Indian government to deliver this latest Newton Fund competition that will help address important societal challenges in India.”

The Minister also announced a joint £8m research and innovation fund from the UK, plus matched funding from India, to support commercially focused research and development partnerships that bring innovative biotechnologies to market for cleaning, processing and using industrial waste streams. This is part of the Newton Fund with India and led by Innovate UK, the Research Councils UK (BBSRC/EPSRC) and India’s Department of Biotechnology

The UK and Indian Prime Ministers Theresa May and Narendra Modi have attended the Summit, which has brought together British businesses and science and technology experts to India to show the best of what the UK has to offer, and to build collaborations and partnerships to further enhance the India-UK relationship in the future.