India, China to play a positive role in the world

The Dollar Business Bureau

President Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday, stated that India and China are set to play a “significant and constructive” role in the 21st century.

Addressing a crowd of Vice Chancellors and heads of higher education institutions of the two countries, at Peking University, in Beijing, the President reiterated that India is one of the brightly placed global economies, and efforts are being made to stimulate the country’s future economic growth at a much better pace.

Mukherjee witnessed the signing of 10 MoUs for cooperation between the institutions of India and China, where he made a special emphasis on India’s renewed thrust on research and innovation. He mentioned that significant investments are being made on upgradation of technology.

“While R&D expenditure as the percentage of GDP in India is about 0.8% at present, we are making concerted efforts to increase this number,” he said. The President also referred to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Start-up India programme, aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation, and stressed that Start Up India campaign will bolster this effort considerably.

India currently has more than 4,500 start-ups, making it the third largest start-up eco-system across the world. “India is relatively a young country, with 60% of its population in the age group of 15 to 59 years. The inter-linkages of educational institutions, through the trinity of research, innovation and entrepreneurship with industry, are at the core of sustained momentum in the manufacturing sector, inclusive and balanced economic growth and all-round development of people,” Mukherjee stated.

The President highlighted the need for a better India-China collaboration on major international forums, including the G-20, BRICS, EAS (East Asia Summit), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and the United Nations, in order to shape a better future for the duo.

He then urged the Indian and the Chinese entrepreneurs to jointly innovate new model for business, which could help business engagements, trade and commerce, between the two of the world’s largest emerging economies.