1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 A strategic partnership between the European Union and India was launched in 2004. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Last year, an ambitious action plan was set in motion to bring forward cooperation between India and the EU 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:20,000 on a range of issues including security, human rights, migration, culture, trade and investment. 4 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:25,000 The partnership between the EU and India has been built on many cornerstones. 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,000 The two hold strong beliefs in democracy and human rights and share mutual trade interests. 6 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:37,000 The EU is India's largest trading partner and the main source of foreign investment into India. 7 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:41,000 For India, there is still significant potential in terms of trade into Europe 8 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:46,000 and the country is steadily exploiting that potential. 9 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,000 It's early morning in Bangalore, India, and Guru Murthy makes his way to work. 10 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:59,000 He's just one of 150,000 IT professionals working in Bangalore, the Indian equivalent of Silicon Valley. 11 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000 India has become a world leader in software outsourcing 12 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:08,000 and every year thousands of highly skilled IT graduates like Guru feed into the industry. 13 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,000 I did my professional degree in engineering and information technology from Bangalore University 14 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:21,000 and just after that there was a campus interview and I just hopped onto the corporate ladder. 15 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 We are the world's second largest pool of technical manpower. 16 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,000 We all speak English as the language of business. 17 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,000 We have very good telecommunication network with the world. 18 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,000 And because we have had a market economy, 19 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:37,000 we have all the ingredients for an ecosystem to become part of the global economy. 20 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,000 Based in Bangalore's Electronic City, one of the world's largest IT campuses, 21 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,000 world leaders like Infosys are a homegrown success 22 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000 and internationally an attractive prospect for European business investment. 23 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Across India, there are opportunities for the EU-India partnership to develop in the ICT field. 24 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:05,000 But the IT sector is also a clear example of the progress that India has made on the domestic front. 25 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:11,000 This well-educated workforce represent a modern India and like Guru, have considerable spending power. 26 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000 And at just 26, Guru has built his own five-bedroom home. 27 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,000 He moved in just a few months ago with his mother, brother and niece. 28 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:25,000 I thought I need to have a house which is internet compatible or something like that. 29 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000 So I made a house which is totally networked and I made sure that there is an entertainment room 30 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,000 and I wanted to have a home theatre over there. 31 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,000 And now in the last one month I made that possible. 32 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,000 As a global partner for the EU, the numbers are adding up for India. 33 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:48,000 108 million children attend primary school, making it the second largest education system after China. 34 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:53,000 By 2010, it's estimated that India will have the highest number of English speakers in the world. 35 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:00,000 And the country has had a sustained economic growth rate of over 6%. 36 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,000 With its 1 billion population, there are also many complex numbers. 37 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:11,000 With its 35 state and union territories, 15 major languages and more than 6 major religions, 38 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:16,000 India has remained the world's largest democracy. 39 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Here we have such tremendous diversity and this diversity could not have been managed 40 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,000 but by a democratic structure. 41 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,000 Because otherwise one community, one religion, one caste, one state, one language group 42 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 will try to dominate the other. 43 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 Democracy is now a tradition for many generations. 44 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,000 Families discuss politics and politicians regularly. 45 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,000 When India votes, more people go to the polls than in the EU and North America together 46 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:49,000 and two years ago India undertook the largest electronic vote to date. 47 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:56,000 Election in India, you know, is like a festival to a certain extent, I mean, to put it positively. 48 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:01,000 Because people feel that there is something which they are going to change 49 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,000 or they are going to decide which otherwise the destiny decides, otherwise the fate decides. 50 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:12,000 But here is a time that in my election booth no destiny and no fate is going to enter. 51 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:18,000 I am going to enter, I am going to stamp or I am going to push the electronic button. 52 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,000 The pharmaceutical industry too has contributed to India's growth 53 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:28,000 and like IT has been an important focus of the EU-India partnership. 54 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:33,000 Following the Doha trade negotiations, India formally recognised product patents, 55 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,000 which has caused concern about the future of the industry domestically. 56 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:41,000 The EU played a key role in ensuring that international trade agreements 57 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 took into account the position of emergent generic industries as exists in India. 58 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:51,000 And with generic drugs worth over 40 billion US dollars going off patent, 59 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Indian firms like Cipla will make a welcome partner internationally. 60 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Our past experience is what is going to see us through in the future. 61 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:05,000 Because being a generic industry, we are very strong in terms of our infrastructure, 62 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:09,000 in terms of the technology that we have developed and the experience that we have acquired. 63 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:16,000 So we are way up on the learning curve and we are able to now participate on a different footing. 64 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:22,000 When we talk about India, we have to understand that India is a country full of contradictions. 65 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:32,000 You have the latest in technology, cheek by jaw with the immense poverty and the two coexist. 66 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:36,000 300 million people live in poverty in India. 67 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:41,000 That's 300 million less than a generation ago, but there remains a lot more to do. 68 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,000 The government has launched what they call a direct assault on poverty 69 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:50,000 and are clear that the fight against poverty and economic growth must go hand in hand. 70 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,000 The latest in technology is playing a further role in India's battle. 71 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:08,000 Founded in 1969, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched its first satellite in 1975. 72 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Our founding father, Dr. Sarabhai, had a great vision. 73 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:18,000 That is, the space technology can be tuned to meet the needs of the common man. 74 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:26,000 In fact, we have lived truly to his vision and today we are one of the major countries in the world 75 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:33,000 who have got the capability to build the satellites of remote sensing and communications as well as launch them. 76 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,000 With 70% of India's 1 billion people living in villages, communication is vital. 77 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000 Via satellite, new telemedicine programmes have been established 78 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 where villagers in remote locations can access the expertise of urban doctors. 79 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:56,000 Crop management, early warning systems against floods and interactive classrooms are now all possible via satellite. 80 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,000 Next year, India is going to the moon. 81 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,000 Under an agreement between the ISRO and the European Space Agency, 82 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:09,000 three instruments from Europe will be on board the unmanned expedition Chandrayaan-1. 83 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:16,000 The EU and India also have agreed to cooperate on Galileo, the European Global Satellite Navigation System, 84 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:23,000 just some of the many collaborations between the EU and India across a range of science and technology fields. 85 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000 India has always maintained clear objectives about its space programme as a development tool, 86 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,000 but for the rest of the world, space exploration puts India in a different context. 87 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:42,000 As we approach the next EU-India summit, it's clear that climate change is not the end of the world.