Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) Germany has offered its high technology to India to overcome the challenges of rapid urbanisation and said for this it will organise a series of events in major Indian cities, German officials said Friday.

Germany has launched a 15-month programme called “Germany and India 2011-12: Infinite Opportunities” under which it will hold a series of conferences and business events across major Indian cities.

“The programme will help strategic partnerships between the two countries,” Minister of State in the German Federal Foreign Office Cornelia Pieper said at the inaugural function.

The project is being initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Asia-Pacific committee of German business and the German federal ministry of education and research.

“With the year of Germany in India, we want to breathe life into our strategic partnership. We are setting up an exchange of ideas: people to people, Indians and Germans,” German Ambassador Thomas Matussek said at an event here.

“We are setting up an exchange of ideas. German high-tech and Indian brains will find solutions to the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation,” he said.

“With the mobile space, a cluster of high-tech pavillions, we will create a buzz in seven of India’s megacities, with a highly attractive programme directed primarily at the young, urban youth,” he said.

Matussek was speaking at the inauguration of a 15-month-long series of cultural, developmental and business events to strengthen ties and evolve solutions for the growing economies of Germany and India in New Delhi.

“By 2030, India will have about 570 million people living in cities alone. We need to create better living environments in cities,” said Peter Loscher, chairman of the Asia-Pacific committee of German business and chief executive of Siemens.

The series across India will reflect on the implications of rapid urbanisation and challenges posed by the fast changes in cities of both countries.

It will also focus on developing solutions for issues like mobility, energy, sustainable city development, architecture and education.

The programme will also include a business conference being hosted by Asia-Pacific committee of German business, which will see several hundred chief executives of German businesses coming to India to expand and forge ties with Indian companies.