On Saturday Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a brief meeting with a delegation of  the Catalan Government led by the Director of Telecommunications and Information Society, Jordi Puigneró, during this year’s Times Global Business Summit where Catalonia, the only guest region, appeared together with Canada and Russia to present various business opportunities associated with ‘smart’ technologies.

   

During the meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Jordi Puigneró explained the specific collaboration opportunities between both countries in the smart, mobile and telecommunications sectors, all of which are areas of special interest to Prime Minister Modi, who also took the opportunity to suggest a further meeting with India’s Ministry of Telecommunications.

 

The meeting between India’s Secretary for Communications and Information Technology, Shri N Sivasailam, and the Catalan delegation took place only a few hours later, during which Puigneró explained the smartCAT strategy, which aims to make Catalonia an international point of reference in terms of ‘smart’ regions by integrating projects that use technology and big data in education, e-commerce and health.

 

Additionally, there was another meeting held on the same day between Sanjay Mitra, the Indian Secretary of Transports and Highways, Jordi Puigneró and the Director of the Catalan Government’s Trade & Investment (Catalonia T&I) Office in Mumbai, Suprio Bose. During the gathering, Jordi Puigneró expressed the Catalan Government’s willingness to collaborate with the Indian Government in ‘smart’ mobility, using the T-Mobilitat project as an example.

 

Catalonia's participation as a guest region in the Times Global Business Summit 2016, which was held on January 29 and 30 in New Delhi (India) was in conjunction with Canada and Russia to present business opportunities in the mobile, connectivity and smart city sectors. The event was organised by the Times of India Group and gathered over one thousand business professionals, economists and institutional representatives from all over the world, including the noteworthy attendance of the Honourable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.