Scottish companies are keen to contribute technologies that can help in creating "Smart cities" in India said Mark Newlands, International Sector Head of the Scottish Development International.
Based on the experiences of "Glasgow" as an established global smart city and the needs in India, “We can offer expertise and relevant technologies. These include, sensors, data analytics, healthcare etc”, he told newspersons here today.
Scotland wants to forge partnerships in new technology areas. The key areas identified are big data analytics, sensors, digital health, oil & gas etc where industry from Scotland can offer value to Indian companies, he said.
Mark Newlands and other officials from the Scottish Development International (SDI) met the Telangana State Secretary for IT, Jayesh Ranjan and corporate leaders from Hyderabad in the past two days. Discussions on the T-Hub, electronic clusters and smart city were held. they will albo be going to Bengaluru, he said.
Two-way investment
With three offices in India, including in Hyderabad, the SDI has been promoting two way investments. Atleast 10 Indian companies have set up significant presence in Scotland. These include Wipro, TCS, Piramal Group etc. Similarly, more than 25 Scottish companies are expanding their operations in the country.
The advantage for Indian companies investing in Scotland will be the easy and cost-effective access to the UK and Europe markets. In the recent past Scotland Government has established 8 innovation centres with an investment of 100 million pounds to foster research, innovation and new technology development. Given the reputed university and research ecosystem, the facilities give scope for increased industry-academia-start up ventures, Mark Newlands said.
For Scottish companies, the Indian small and medium enterprises sector offers promise from collaborations in technology areas. There are at least 20 technology companies which want to contribute to the oil and gas sector. Technologies like soil remediation to using unmanned aerial vehicles to detect leakages in oil pipelines are being explored.