During a visit by King Juan Carlos of Spain to India, SICF’s Secretary General, Manuel Cacho, met with Ms Shailja Vaidya Gupta, Director of International Collaborations at the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India (DBT), and Adrián Gutiérrez, CDTI’s representative in India. At the meeting, which took place in Delhi on October 26, Ms Gupta and Mr Gutiérrez highlighted the success of the first ever joint Spain-India invitation for biotechnology project proposals from Indian and Spanish companies alike.
The invitation for proposals, which closed on October 15, is funded by the DBT and CDTI and covers fields in which Spanish companies are well-positioned, such as bioenergy, biofuels and water management. Both CDTI in Spain and DBT in India will review all the proposals submitted by January 2013.
Both organisations were satisfied with the results of the invitation for proposals and expect to be able to develop new projects involving Indian and Spanish companies. SICF’s Secretary General praised CDTI’s and DBT’s representatives on their work and said he hopes to continue to offer support for these projects in the future, which bring Spanish and Indian economies closer in key sectors such as technology.
