By IANS
New Delhi : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Sunday inked two pacts with Britain’s UKSkills and i2india Holdings to explore and drive innovation for industrial and social development.
The agreement was signed on the occasion of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’ two-day India visit followed by a high-powered delegation consisting senior government officials, business leaders and academicians.
The signing took place in the presence of John Hutton, British secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and CII president Sunil Bharti Mittal.
“As part of the partnership with CII, i2india will offer services to Indian industry that will lead to enhancing the awareness of innovation and intellectual property (IP) in India and support the identification of market opportunities for IP and technologies from India into the international markets and vice versa,” the industry body said in a statement.
i2india is a technology commercialisation and investment company focused on creating commercial value from intellectual property developed in India. It is the Indian arm of Britain’s Imperial Innovations Group plc, a company based out of Imperial College London and listed on London Stock Exchange.
Britain is India’s fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade estimated to be over $10 billion. India has emerged as the second largest investor in Britain with more than 50 Indian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Indian companies have invested over $1 billion in Britain.