By Richa Sharma
Helsinki, Sep 11 (IANS) Out to prove that there’s more to Finnish technology than Nokia handphones, Finland is seeking collaborations with India in biotechnology and nanotechnology and will also set up a Finnish Innovation Centre in New Delhi.

The tiny but energy-efficient Scandinavian country also wants to work with India in healthcare, ecotourism and environment protection.

High-level delegations from the two countries will meet here in October to discuss plans for business and joint research and development. The Finnish delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Elina Kalkku.

“I can see a lot of future in the Indian market and we are looking forward to increasing research and development in sectors like science and technology, telecommunication, healthcare, ecotourism and clean technology,” Seppo I. Keranen, senior consultant, Finpro, told a group of visiting Indian journalists.

Finpro is an organisation under Finland’s Ministry of Employment and Finance. It has over 560 Finnish industries as its members.

Finland is also looking forward to setting up a Finnish Innovation Centre (called Finnote) in New Delhi by next year under a science and technology agreement signed between the two countries in 2008. Finland already has four such innovation centres in Japan, China, Russia and the US.

“Under the project we will put together researchers from both the countries and work jointly on developing new technology in various fields. The countries have great potential to work together and cater to third countries,” said Keranen, an expert on the Indian economy.

“India has highly technology-efficient people and we have high technology knowhow. So both the countries can work together in various sectors. India is a very important market for Finnish companies,” he said.

In healthcare, Finland has tied with India’s Department of Biotechnology to set up diagnostic centres in villages.

“We are in talks with some 10 healthcare companies in India to start telemedicine facilities for rural parts of India as providing better health facility continues to remain a key issue,” said Keranen, who worked as commercial counsellor at New Delhi’s Finnish embassy for five years.

Finland is also in talks with the Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to start ecotourism in the states.

“The climate in northern hilly regions in India is more or less similar to that in

Finland. We are in talks with both the state governments to build ski resorts and energy efficient buildings as we have highly efficient technology that can keep buildings warm in even several degrees below zero,” Keranen said.

There are around 75 Finnish companies working in India while 29 Indian companies are active in Finland. The volume of business between the two countries is over $1 billion a year.

(Richa Sharma can be contacted at richa.s@ians.in)