Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food, Public Distribution, and Textiles, said today that education will serve as a link between India and Australia. He claims that by combining education and commerce with technology, we would be able to take action.
“It’s always been a crucial component of our relationship.” We must investigate the prospects of hybrid curricula in the post-Covid world,” Shri Goyal stated during an Interaction with Students of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. Shri Piyush Goyal described the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA) as a “natural relationship” in which India plans to triple steel production capacity and improve energy efficiency.
Piyush Goyal said education will boost research
“A lot of the good work that researchers come up with doesn’t receive that kind of scale, that kind of operationalization chance,” Shri Goyal said. “With that scale, we can make medical care more affordable, with that scale, we can make technology come to serve larger numbers of people, manufactured at scale, using the talent that we have in both countries, possibly the talent in Australia coming up with game-changing research, the talent in India helping it to manufacture that at scale, use that at scale, serving large sections of society in the world and then taking it to the rest of the world,” she says. And I feel that such collaborations are beneficial to the world,” he continued.
Shri Piyush Goyal stated the India-Australia collaboration can actually impact the lives of our people, and he invited the University of NSW to expand its footprint in India. Shri Piyush Goyal later told a Business Leaders Meeting held by the Business Council of Australia that business will be the framework on which all other contracts between the two countries will flourish.
“You can actually take your technologies, the wonderful innovations that you’re generating out of your laboratories, research institutions, or universities to a large market like India, use the talent and skills that Indians have to offer, and possibly Make in India for the large Indian population and for the world,” he said.
IndAus ECTA will help us quadruple our bilateral trade in the next 5-6 years, and by 2030, we need to aim for a $100 billion target, he stated.
“I agree that if we’re going to go to 100 billion, we’ll have to get more specific.” Soft power is also present in those specifics; for example, we will need to look at much deeper engagements in Science and Technology, research, and education, and we will need to synchronize standards. So, while conversing with the show’s host, Shri Goyal added, “We’ll have to encourage our standards organizations to look at working together so that products can seek frictionless entry in each other’s markets.”
In order to realize the potential of the IndAus ECTA, Shri Piyush Goyal stated that India will establish an Invest India Office and create a Trade Promotion Office in Australia in a few months.