Skolkovo Foundation president Viktor Vekselberg has wrapped up a board meeting in India by inviting the country’s startups to take part in Russia’s top innovations project, ITAR-Tass reported Friday.
Vekselberg, one of Russia’s top entrepreneurs who made his fortune in metals and energy, noted Russia and Indian enjoyed particularly fruitful relations in the spheres of high technology, space, energy and ecology, but stressed he wanted to see more business activity between the nations.
Skolkovo Foundation president Viktor Vekselberg. Photo: sk.ru
“We would like to see Indian companies among our participants,” Vekselberg was quoted as saying, referring to Skolkovo resident companies that currently number over 1,000.
“On the other hand, we would like to promote Russian innovations on the Indian market,” he added.
Skolkovo has a special program for foreign startups that want to enter the Russian market known as Soft Landing. It provides administrative support, lab space, financing and other benefits, a move to encourage greater capital inflow into the country.
In July, Aniara, an Indian telecommunications company, ordered two geostationary satellites from the Russian division of the international private aerospace company Dauria Aerospace, a partner of the Skolkovo Foundation, on the sidelines of the Farnborough International Airshow in Britain.
Alongside the Skolkovo Foundation board meeting in the city of Guraon, the two companies signed an extension to the deal that sees ten Russian-produced satellites enter markets in Asia and the Middle East over the next five years.
“Business between Russia and India in the sphere of innovations has a wide field of activity and space for joint projects,” Vekselberg was quoted as saying. “The priority for today is the high-tech sphere, where our countries are currently leading the world.”
The Skolkovo president added he would like to see more Indian scientists involved with the Skolkovo Institute for Science and Technology, where Raj Rajogopalan serves as provost.
“The success of our projects will be easy to measure. If we have students, professors and researchers from India (at Skoltech), then we will have achieved our aims,” he said.