Promising areas of cooperation between India and Russia
Oil and gas and coal, diamond mining industry
The Indian leadership is placing a key stake on the implementation of energy projects with Russia in Eastern Siberia, the Far East and the Arctic. The Indian economy is increasingly in need of energy resources and diversification of their sources, and this predetermines the significant potential of Russian-Indian cooperation in the development of bilateral oil and gas and coal projects.
Russia and India have created a working group on Gas, which operates within the framework of the Working Group on Cooperation in the Field of Energy and Energy Efficiency of the Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation. The Indian Energy Center services as a project office to foster interaction between key Indian energy companies and Russian businesses. The center was opened on 1st of March 2021. The Indian Energy Delegation will change every 5 years.
Several Indian companies are successfully operating in the region, such as KGK, a diamond cutting enterprise in Vladivostok, and Tata Power, specializing in coal mining in the Krutogorovo region of Kamchatka.
In India, a representative office of the public joint-stock company Almaznaya Kompaniya ALROSA operates. It notes the improvement of the rough diamond trading system and the search for ways to further improve the regulatory environment in this area in order to protect the consumer value of natural diamonds.
Import of high technologies
Cooperation in the field of science and technology between Russia and India has been going on for several decades. The new mechanism for interaction in the field of scientific and technical cooperation entered into force on June 21, 2017 after the establishment of the Russian-Indian high-level committee on scientific and technical cooperation.
Key areas of cooperation: nuclear power, space technology, aviation, electric power, etc.
The parties determined the main directions of cooperation within the framework of this structure
Nuclear power
Space and laser technology
Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and cancer treatment
Radiophotonics
Deep sea exploration
Deep sea exploration
Ultra-high performance computer simulation
High energy materials
It is also planned to develop scientific cooperation in the polar regions within the framework of joint climate and environmental projects. On this basis, it is planned to create a specialized bilateral center.
It is planned to expand cooperation in hydro and heat power engineering, in the field of energy efficiency, as well as in the development and construction of facilities that generate energy from non-traditional sources.
Shipbuilding and ship repair
The Russian and Indian sides are actively discussing cooperation in the design and construction of ships, ship repair, development of logistics operations, inland waterways and ports. The largest Russian and Indian companies are actively involved in the discussion, such as the United Shipbuilding Corporation, the AK BARS Shipbuilding Corporation, the Shipbuilding and Shiprepair Technology Center, the Central Design Bureau for the SPK im. R.E. Alekseeva, CochinShipyard Limited, Chowgule & Co., L & TShipbuilding, ChennaiPortTrust.
Textile and leather industry
Leather goods are consistently included in the structure of commodity purchases in India by Russian organizations, and the interest of Indian manufacturers of this category of goods in cooperation with Russia is growing.
Construction of transport infrastructure, water supply systems and other urban planning solutions
Russia and India intend to continue working on joint projects in the field of transport infrastructure, attaching importance to the development of the North-South international transport corridor.
The Russian side is implementing an infrastructure project to increase the high-speed limit of rail links between the Indian cities of Nagpur and Secunderabad.
Russia and India intend to continue cooperation in the field of professional training in the field of transport and scientific and practical support in the implementation of infrastructure transport projects.
Geolocation and exploration
Cooperation is actively developing in the field of geological exploration and joint development of oil and gas fields in Russia and India, including offshore projects.
Work continues on improving the routes for the delivery of energy resources from Russia to India, including on the basis of a long-term agreement on the import of Russian crude oil, with the possible use of the Northern Sea Route and the pipeline system.
Nayyara Energy Limited is planning to increase the capacity of the Vadinar refinery.
Electronics, Engineering, IT
Russia and India intend to more intensively conduct joint development of high-tech products in such areas as telecommunications technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, IT in pharmaceuticals. In this regard, it should be noted the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of innovation between the Department of Science and Technology of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
India currently has about 200 free economic zones. Almost half of them are technoparks. It is the sphere of IT technologies that is now the most popular and receives the largest number of benefits from the state.
Medicine, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals
The traditional sphere of cooperation between Russia and India is pharmaceuticals and medicine. The main areas of interaction are the development, production and marketing of antiviral drugs, medical devices and healthcare technologies. Working together on a COVID-19 vaccine is especially important in 2020.
Agriculture and food
The Indian and Russian leaders intend to take concrete steps to improve the regulatory framework in this area, harmonize phytosanitary standards, develop logistics, find new ways to promote agricultural products to the markets of the two countries, and study each other’s capabilities and needs more closely. The green corridor mechanism provides for the preliminary exchange of information between customs administrations, which will help to speed up the clearance of goods by improving the efficiency of risk management, which would be an important measure to facilitate trade in this area.
Information Security
Following the results of the second round of Russian-Indian interdepartmental consultations on security issues in the use of information and communication technologies, held in Moscow in 2019, the parties confirmed their common concern about threats in the use of information and communication technologies and the commonality of approaches to ensuring security in this area.
The leaderships of the countries intend to expand practical cooperation, including the exchange of technical information to prevent the use of information and communication technologies for criminal and terrorist purposes.
