After his successful meeting of global IT giants at the Silicon Valley in the US , Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday at Indian Silicon Valley Bengaluru to boost his baby “Make In India”.
Both the leaders are expected to discuss the role of technology and innovation in manufacturing and IT services for the NDA Government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives. Prime Minister and German Chancellor are visiting the 50-billion euro German auto major Bosch facility in Bengaluru and learn how other German firms in the country will contribute to the ‘Make in India and Digitise India projects. “Bengaluru is the city where you can see how German firms like Bosch, Siemens, SAP, BASF and Mercedes-Benz innovate and Make in India products and solutions for its development,” German Consul General Jorn Rohde said.
German President Joachim Gauck visited Bengaluru a year ago on a similar mission, as the city is host to about 200 leading German firms in diverse sectors.
“The visit of heads of the state to Bengaluru signifies the growing collaboration between the two countries in research and development, smart manufacturing and convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT),” Rohde noted. Modi and Merkel will also participate at an ICT event, where they will interact with who’s who of the IT industry, including Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayan Murthy and Wipro czar Azim Premji and German software major SAP India executives.
According to a Nasscom official a large visiting German delegation, including ministers and business heads, will be present on the occasion to exchange views on entrepreneurship and start-ups to fuel our ICT products and services for domestic and global markets. Organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the apex organisation of IT firms in India, and the German Fraunhofer Institute, the luncheon meeting is a fallow-up of Modi’s participation at a similar event on start-ups during his visit to the Silicon Valley at San Jose in California, US, on September 27. According to German Ambassador Martin Ney, both the leaders will focus on business ties between the two countries in the city. “Merkel will meet with representatives of German firms present in the city, employing hundreds of young Indians and contributing to ‘Make in India’ as well as ‘Digital India’,” Ney had told reporters in New Delhi on October 3.
The meeting between Modi and Merkel comes days after they met in New York on September 26 at a high-powered summit of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan (G-4 group), which the Indian prime minister hosted, as all the four countries are bidding for a permanent seat in the United Nation’s restructured Security Council.