NEW DELHI, Jan. 13, 2024 -- During her 7 days official visit to India, the President of the Paris Region, ex-Minister Mrs. Valérie Pécresse, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Hon'ble Chief Minister of the State of Karnataka, Mr. Siddaramaiah, covering key areas such as Artificial Intelligence, new technologies, environmental protection and the industries of tomorrow.

This declaration of intent with the State of Karnataka in India will enable the Paris Region to forge new partnerships between economic players in the industrial and new technology sectors on forward-looking projects (digital, artificial intelligence, environmental protection, industries of the future, refurbishment of historic buildings, etc.). The agreement also provides for closer cooperation on the industries of tomorrow, such as biotechnology and green hydrogen. With more than 5,300 biotech start-ups and 760 biotech companies on the market in India and a major renewable energy group investing $6.7 billion in a green hydrogen project in Karnataka in 2022, this agreement will enable the Paris Region to acculturate and encourage the development of these industries in Parisian territory where several big players from Indian tech groups have already invested.

Signing of MoU agreement between the Paris Region, IIIT-B (Bangalore International Institute of Information Technology), Aivancity Ecole Technologique Business & Société Paris-Cachan (94) and Choose Paris Region

The signing of this declaration of intent also includes a cooperation agreement between the Paris Region, the IIITB (Bangalore International Institute of Information Technology), Aivancity Ecole Technologique Business & Société Paris-Cachan (94) and Choose Paris Region. The Île-de-France Paris Region has called for this partnership to help deploy digital solutions and AI to enhance the experience of foreign tourists, particularly in the run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The partnership between these two schools of excellence aims to develop the AI sector in the Paris region through the creation of an 'AI and Ethics' course and the establishment of a reciprocal annual student exchange programme between IIIT-B and Aivancity Ecole Technologique Business & Société.These two agreements were signed as part of a visit to India by the President of the Île-de-France Region to promote the region's economic fabric and centres of research excellence.

During her stay in Bangalore, President Valérie Pécresse, visited NASSCOM center of excellence and met several Indian start-ups and unicorns of Bangalore such as Addverb, Ather Energy, Captain Fresh already active in France for some of them and propose to establish a strong link between this center and a Parisian start-ups incubator, inside Paris or in Paris-Saclay, the French Silicon Valley. She also mentioned her intention to have a Paris Region delegation and booth at Bengaluru Tech Summit in November 2024. She visited Bengaluru Bio Innovation Center.

The Paris region delegation was accompanied by representatives from Paris Region's leading business schools (HEC, AiVancity and ESSEC) and 6 cutting-edge French startups in the fields of scientific instrumentation, fibre optics, calibration solutions, computing, quartz machining, electric charging solutions and spatial solutions. All the French companies of the delegation (METAVISIO-Thomson Computers, EASY METRICS, FOSINA, SODIMATE, WATTPARK and Sirius Space Services) have benefited from a B2B program from Business France team in India to develop their businesses on the Indian market.

As a concrete result of the visit, Metavisio (Thomson computing), launched last November on the Indian market with a local industrial partner, was proud to announce this week a significant deal with Flipkart, with a first commitment of 74 000 units. Thomson positioning itself now as a new and strong brand for e-commerce in India with computing products Make in India. Other companies of the delegation are considering opening subsidiaries as well in India very soon.

During her trip, Mrs. Pécresse met several Indian ministers, including Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Education, as well as the French Ambassador to India, His Excellency Mr. Thierry Mathou.

The visit provided an opportunity to meet a number of key players in the Indian business world, including Mr. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of TATA SONS, Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the Chairperson of BIOCON, a flagship biotechnology company, Mr. Srinivasan, the Chairman of Reliance Foundation Youth Sports, DLF and RMZ groups, and several top banking groups of India, with a view to promote Paris as the 1st  financial centre of Europe following Brexit. The visit also helped forge links with the world of culture, tourism, weddings and cinema, including a meeting with Rishabh Chopra, Director of Yash Raj Films Studios in Mumbai, to promote the Paris Region as a destination.

The trip had a number of aims: to support exports and enhance the attractiveness of the Paris Region as a business location, in order to attract not only setting up of headquarters and R&D centres in the Parisian region, but also Indian visitors, who are still not very numerous among international tourists.

About Paris Region

Paris Region (www.welcometofrance.com/en/region/paris-region) is the prime business region in Europe and one of the most important in the world. By itself it accounts for 4.5% of European GDP. It is distinguished by a highly concentrated productive system, with 1,055,000 businesses, and is home to almost two thirds of headquarters of French businesses employing over 2,000 people.

It has the greatest amount of corporate real estate in Europe.

It is the largest employment area in Europe, with six million jobs and a highly skilled labour force (35% of French executives).

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