India-Czech Republic to launch strategic partnership for innovation boosting future JVs

India and the Czech Republic are expected to launch a on innovation at the meeting between and his in this week on the sidelines of the . This will be the first such partnership between India and a European country as India seeks expertise in tech and innovation for . The initiative will boost Indo-Czech joint ventures under Make in India initiative and give impetus to the proposed India-EU Free Trade Agreement.

The Czech Republic has been a significant partner for India in sectors including auto and defence for decades. The Czech PM is leading a strong science and technology delegation at the summit, according to people familiar with the matter. Trade ties between India and the Czech Republic, formerly Czechoslovakia, preceded India’s independence.

Czechoslovakia established its consulate in Mumbai in October 1920 and in Calcutta in December 1929. The Czech policy of trade diversification outside the EU has given fresh impetus to Indo-Czech trade and economic relations. New mechanisms and diversified interaction thereafter resulted in an increase in bilateral trade to about $3.

16 billion in 2022, from just $86 million in 1993, as per Czech statistics. Almost 7% of Czech investments outside Europe go to India. More than 30 Czech companies have invested in India, including škoda Auto, Doosan škoda Power, Bonatrans, Home Credit, Liko-s, Tatra trucks, Zetor and Dina-Hitex, in various sectors such as transport, energy, automotive, metallurgy and finance.

Indian companies have invested in the Czech Republic in sectors such as IT, electronics, telecommunication, textile industry, pharmaceuticals, automotive components and food. Major Indian companies that have invested in the Czech Republic include Infosys, LEEL, APAG Elektronik,, Varroc Lightning Systems, Pricol, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Mileta Horice and MSSL Advanced Polymers. Shoe company Bata, which started its operations in Batanagar (West Bengal) in the 1930s, is among the more popular Czech brands in India.

While škoda is currently a well-known brand in the automotive industry, Jawa and Yezdi motorcycles were popular in the 1960s. Owing to the popularity of the brand, Mahindra and Mahindra has revived the Jawa brand, and Jawa motorcycles made in India are now being exported to the Czech Republic. During the communist era, Czech companies launched a number of important industrial projects in India in the fields of energy, metallurgy, machine tools and transport.

By 1990, there were about 60 such large projects in India. Some of those Czech companies continue to work on projects in the heavy engineering sector in India. The bilateral defence cooperation gained momentum with the signing of a memorandum of understanding in October 2003.

Accordingly, a joint defence committee has been set up. So far, six meetings of the committee have taken place, with the last meeting held in Delhi on February 3, 2020. The Czech defence companies have been regularly supplying military equipment to the Indian armed forces, according to a brief by the Indian Embassy in Prague.

(Catch all the , Events and Updates on . ).