IT: Europe needs a closer alliance with India

Look at India as more than just a country for production

For a long time, India has been at the top of the list for being a good place to outsource IT tasks to, but European businesses should not only regard India as a production country. According to Professor Mogens Kühn Pedersen, who heads a team of researchers at the Department of Informatics at CBS, it is also important to create an IT research and development cooperation with India.

Growth motor for the entire world's IT industry

He is the coordinator for a new EU project, EuroIndia, that will look at Indian research and development opportunities within IT. The project will help to establish a stronger cooperation between Europe and India.

- The IT industry in India is growing strongly and is functioning as a growth motor for the entire world's IT industry. At the same time, India is holding an increasingly greater position in the world market, Mogens Kühn Pedersen says.

He believes that the European IT industry needs an alliance with India to be able to cope with strong international competition.

The project EuroIndia will run over two years with the objective that the project will uncover Indian research and development opportunities. Another objective of the project is to create dialogue and cooperation between European and Indian development and research businesses. For instance, businesses will be able to make use of the research opportunities offered in the EU's 7th framework programme within the field of IT.

India opens up to the outside world

- India regards Europe as a market and as a possible cooperation partner within IT. India is a newly industrialised country, which, in these years, is opening up more and more to the outside world. India will not only learn from Europe's experiences with IT research and development; the country is also ready to look at the opportunities for joint research and development projects, Professor Mogens Kühn Pedersen says.

The Indians' expertise within IT is internationally recognised, and European IT research environments are increasingly interested in India.

EuroIndia

The project is coordinated by the Department of Informatics at Copenhagen Business School, but it also consists of five European and Indian partners: Three businesses from France and the UK, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, which is India's leading technical university with connections with ten other technical universities in India.