November 05, 2014
1. The Twentieth Session of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) was held in New Delhi on November 5, 2014. The Indian side was led by the Minister of External Affairs and the Chairman of the Indian side of the Commission, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, while Mr Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Russian side of the Commission represented the Russian Federation.
2. The Commission reviewed the progress on a broad spectrum of bilateral issues including trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation and suggested actions for realizing the full potential of this important relationship. The Commission took note of important outstanding issues requiring immediate attention and recommended early resolution of such issues amicably in tune with the spirit of traditional friendship and mutual trust between the two countries.
3. Some other important decisions of the Commission include:
(i)A Joint Study Group for the proposed agreement between India and the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation for trade in goods and services.
(ii) Enhancement of bilateral trade through the International North South Corridor Project (INSTC) by freight forwarders and exporters particularly to bolster trade in agriculture and food processing industry;
(iii) Maintain the momentum of cooperation in some priority areas such as hydrocarbons, coking coal, fertilizers, mining, civil aviation, infrastructure and trade in rough diamonds;
(iv) Joint cooperation between the Indian company National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and the Russian company ACRON for development of potassium and magnesium deposits in Talitsky mine in Perm region of Russia and Partomchorr apatite-nepheline ore deposit (Murmansk region);
(v) Some other key decisions taken during the meeting include proposals for establishment of a ‘Smart City’ in India by the Russian company (AFK "Sistema"), manufacture of lighting equipment for general and special purpose in Karnataka, India by an affiliate of MGK "Lighting technologie, Russia, and project of the Group of companies "Dauria Aerospace” and "Aniara Communications Pvt. Ltd.” concerning unrolling of a group of telecommunication satellites "NextStar” on geostationary orbit of the Earth on the basis of low budget platform;
(vi) Several Indian companies are engaged with Russian partners for investment and joint collaboration projects in energy, science and technology and steel sectors. Some of the major projects include proposal for setting up of a 200-250 MW Power Plant at Ulan-Ude by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), establishment of a JV in India for production of Cold-Rolled Grain Oriented silicon steel (CRGO) grade steel by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) in collaboration with M/s NLMK of the Russian Federation, a proposal for establishing Joint Supercomputer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (JSCC RAS), collaboration on various applications of High Performance Computing (HPC), supercomputing and establishment of an India-Russia joint investment fund for supporting joint projects in high technology sector including transfer of technology.
4. DPM Rogozin was accompanied by senior officials of the Russian Government and business representatives. During his visit, DPM Rogozin called on the Prime Minister. He also co-chaired the 8th India-Russia Forum for Trade and Investments (November 5 in New Delhi), an active B2B forum between the two countries, along with the Indian Co-chair, the Minister of State for Commerce & Industries Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman. The next session of the IRIGC-TEC will be held in Moscow in 2015
5. The interactions on November 5 also served to review the preparations for the forthcoming visit of the President of the Russian Federation, H. E. Mr. V. V. Putin to India for the 15th India-Russia Annual Summit.
New Delhi
November 5, 2014
