Below are the excerpts of an interview with Poul V. Jensen, Managing Director, EBTC:

What are the top 3-5 areas where you see India leading the world in this decade?

Areas where I see India making significant strides in coming years are logistics, digitisation and mobility, as well as decentralised solutions within many sectors. Currently, at ~14% of GDP, the costs of the logistics sector are an obstacle to India’s domestic manufacturing, its export potential as well as its strategic position as a bridge between East and West.

The National Logistics Policy expected later this year may catalyse standardisation across the sector, which is important to attract significant foreign investments. The decision to classify the logistics segment under the ambit of infrastructure has opened the route to more attractive financing and investments. As an example, the development of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is set to provide a boost to not only manufacturing but also the warehousing & supply chain sectors. At the same time, the government’s focus on digitisation in logistics - via the e-Governance portal, the Digital India drive and the StartUp India Initiative - have been pivotal in advancing the transformation.

SMEs form the backbone of both the European and Indian economies, and it is crucial to provide a mechanism for their greater adoption while the businesses need to understand, adopt and integrate digital solutions. Digitisation of inventory management, enterprise resource management, customer relations management, big data analysis, digital payment systems, and more, helps efficiently identify and target potential clients.

I believe that India will soon be pioneering new mobility concepts. India has shown a significant appetite towards championing sustainable urbanmobility solutions, driven by the SMART Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). The government’s FAME-II scheme fostering e-mobility in India, its strategic focus on the National Hydrogen Mission to propel sustainable mobility as its implementation of incentives for development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) - are set to develop the sector in India, contemporarily and holistically.

In the telecom sector before an entire country’s population could own a landline, cell phones came in and changed the course. So it will happen in other sectors as well. Before centralised systems of providing electricity, water, waste management, healthcare, and more are installed, there will emerge de-centralised and local systems, with newer business models and involvement of local communities. Again, digitisation will be a big part of this drive.

India has significant achievements in R&D across sectors but there is still a lot more to be done. What according to you are the top 3-5 interventions that can help in exponentially increasing the efficiencies of the R&D ecosystem in India?

R&D spending in India (GERD) at 0.66% continues to be significantly lower than ~2-2.5% in the EU in 2020. As much as 2/3rds of R&D investments in India originate from public sector, whereas almost the same figure is contributed by private sector in Europe. Recently, there has been a distinct trend of increasing foreign investments in the Indian R&D sector. Earlier, such investments were mainly towards cost arbitrage, i.e., back-end and administrative spending while now it is moving towards innovation and technology.

In CY2021, India attracted a six fold y-o-y increase of $343.64mn in FDI inflows in R&D sector with European enterprises including ABB and Philips playing a significant role. The intention here is not just to leverage significantly lower costs of business and a highly skilled workforce but also to invest in R&D specific to India, a large and diverse market. Increasingly, IP is also being seen less as a burden and more as an asset. As the implementation partner of the India IP SME Helpdesk, EBTC is working towards bridging the gap between European and Indian enterprises in the field of IP, thereby facilitating and enhancing bilateral investments in innovations, technologies and R&D.

In my opinion, India can take two giant leaps in improving the R&D ecosystem. One, would be to focus on demand-driven R&D that serve business goals and purposes. The other would be to outline clear pathways and unified strategies for ease-of-access and ease-of doing-business among innovators.

Could you share an exercise that EBTC was involved with, in India, which has given excellent results in terms of transformation and / or efficiency increase?

At its core, EBTC’s mandate is to engage with relevant stakeholders in Europe and India to strengthen the bilateral business corridor, particularly with regards to sustainability, climate change, resource efficiency, circular economy and digitisation. One such recent engagement has been with the European Lightweight Clusters' Alliance (ELCA), a network of 12 entities of excellence, amongst 9 EU member states, focusing on development, adoption and implementation of lightweight and novel materials in industries, such as, automotive and aerospace.

The development of lightweight materials is relatively novel in India, but so very important in sustainability terms – if every car, truck, train and plane were made of lightweight materials, the saved carbon emissions would contribute to India’s committed targets. Here, EBTC’s role becomes crucial with respect to facilitating an exchange of expertise, know-how and best practices between European and Indian enterprises and academia, and handholding ensuing partnerships.

EBTC has also consolidated, channelised and disseminated policy inputs from leading European and Indian CEOs to the re-started EU-India FTA negotiations. In association with Business Europe and Invest India, EBTC organised the first Roundtable to provide business leaders with a mechanism to discuss challenges and opportunities in bilateral investment opportunities. The Outcome Document of this Roundtable session, which has been shared with relevant stakeholders in Europe and India, seeks to provide a complementary business led platform to feed into wider conversations on the EU-India FTA.

EBTC has also consolidated, channelised and disseminated policy inputs from leading European and Indian CEOs to the re-started EU-India FTA negotiations. In association with Business Europe and Invest India, EBTC organised the first Roundtable to provide business leaders with a mechanism to discuss challenges and opportunities in bilateral investment opportunities. The Outcome Document of this Roundtable session, which has been shared with relevant stakeholders in Europe and India, seeks to provide a complementary business led platform to feed into wider conversations on the EU-India FTA.

The core mandate for EBTC is to enable Europe-India collaboration. It will be one and a half decades since its launch - how has the journey been till now and what are your plans for the coming 5-10 years?

EBTC has been through a diverse journey since its inception in 2008 – from being a cleantech collaboration centre to successfully transforming into a self-sustainable organisation in 2016, carrying on the original mandate and staying true to enabling EU-India collaboration. We continue to implement and execute several EU projects in India which allows us to create a unique body of knowledge, multi-stakeholder networks and a proven track record of both public and private sector projects in the Europe-India Business Corridor. Sustainability, green technology, innovation and internationalisation continue to form key tenets of all our activities.

Over the next decade, EBTC is poised to expand as an ecosystem player, bringing in multi-disciplinary organisations and experts to co-create demand-driven projects and outcomes. As an example, we have increasingly been co-creating public project opportunities in Indian public and private sectors. With the tremendous growth of the country and high level of acceptability of innovative and sustainable European solutions, we see this as a key area of growth. Importantly, EBTC will be playing a bigger role in adapting such solutions to India’s customised needs, which largely are markedly different to European requirements.

Just as we have expanded our on-ground understanding and networks, we have also started several of our own initiatives - forums and clusters to drive thought leaderships, facilitate internationalisation, enable policy advocacy and cocreate project opportunities. We plan on nurturing these initiatives and adding on newer clusters and forums with increased private sector participation.

There is also an increased focus on communication and dissemination of such knowledge, initiatives and key developments within the corridor. As a lean and flexible organisation, we can move nimbly and follow important trends and opportunities within this dynamic landscape.

SDG is a primary topic for governments across the globe. How is EBTC working with India towards meeting the 2030 goals?

Look, EBTC was born out of SDG 17 if you will - “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development” - EBTC is such a “means of implementation”. As facilitators of bilateral and multi-lateral co-operation in the Europe-India Business Corridor, we are all about sustainability, compliance, collaboration and communication. EBTC dovetails recent developments such as EU Green Deal, EU Raw Materials Initiative, European Investment Bank’s membership of CDRI, the EU Connectivity Strategy, the Global Gateway, and more. And with India’s commitment to net zero and ratification with the Paris Agreement, the EU-India Partnerships across a variety of sectors, form a fertile ground for sustainable growth in-line with the UN SDGs.

We are always keen on keeping both regions reaping the benefits of each other’s capacities and progress through various strategic programmes that support sustainability-focused companies, particularly SMEs. Sustainability being the common theme of all things EBTC, our transport, aviation and sports clusters are working towards implementing demand-driven projects and mandates that further the economies and the sustainable footprint to business and progress of both regions.

This interview was initially published as part of the Monthly Policy Note by Primus Partners. To read the entire note, click here