Kolkata, August 31, 2026 – India and Russia must move beyond a conventional technology-transfer model and develop a deeper partnership based on co-development, localisation, joint research and the creation of technologies that address the specific requirements of both countries, Debjit Chakraborty, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Indo-Russia “Innopraktika” Technology Hub, said.

Addressing the India-Russia Bilateral Conclave in Kolkata, Chakraborty said the changing global technological and economic landscape had created new opportunities for the two countries to strengthen cooperation across science, technology, innovation, research, academia and industry. He emphasised that the future of bilateral technological engagement should be founded on mutual strengths and shared value creation rather than a one-sided exchange in which one country supplies technology and the other merely adopts it.

“We are looking at a partnership of equals. It is not simply about bringing a Russian technology into India or taking an Indian technology to Russia. The idea is to identify the right technologies, bring the right partners together and develop solutions that can create value in both countries,” he said.

Chakraborty underlined the growing strength of India’s technology ecosystem, pointing to the country’s large pool of engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and skilled professionals. He said India had developed substantial capabilities across a range of technological fields and that these capabilities could complement Russian expertise in areas of advanced science and technology.

“We have technical capabilities, we have skills, and India has a very strong talent pool. What we are trying to do is expand the number of people and organisations working together and build a platform where technology problems can be identified and addressed jointly,” he said.

He said the objective of the Innopraktika technology platform was to help identify areas where Indian and Russian capabilities could be brought together to solve practical technological and industrial challenges. Such cooperation, he said, could help create products and solutions that were not only relevant to the Indian and Russian markets but could also eventually find applications in other parts of the world.

According to Chakraborty, technology partnerships should therefore not be viewed simply through the prism of importing or exporting finished products. Instead, the two countries should focus on adapting, developing and commercialising technologies jointly.

“The objective is not merely to deploy something developed in another country. We want to create something that is relevant to the Indian market, can be developed jointly and can eventually be taken to other markets as well,” he said.

He said the two countries possessed complementary strengths that could be leveraged through a structured technology ecosystem involving companies, universities, research institutions, start-ups and government-supported innovation platforms. Bringing these stakeholders together, he said, would make it easier to identify promising technologies, test their applications and take them towards commercialisation.

“We are identifying technologies and looking at where Indian and Russian capabilities can complement each other. If there is a technology that can solve a particular problem in India, we should be able to bring the necessary partners together and work on it here,” he said.

Chakraborty also stressed the importance of connecting academic research with industrial requirements. He said universities and engineering institutions in India represented an important source of scientific knowledge, technological innovation and skilled human resources, but stronger mechanisms were needed to connect this potential with industry.

“We need to work closely with universities and engineering colleges because a lot of the technology and talent that we are looking for is already there. The challenge is to connect that talent with industry and with real-world problems,” he said.

He said the technology hub was looking at the development of pilot projects as an important step towards establishing the feasibility of potential collaborations. Pilot projects, he explained, could help determine whether a particular technology could be successfully adapted to Indian conditions and whether there was a viable market for the resulting product or solution.

“We have been trying to develop pilot projects and identify technologies that can be adapted for the Indian environment. A pilot project is important because it allows us to demonstrate that the technology works and, more importantly, that there is a market for it,” he said.

Chakraborty said India and Russia could also explore greater opportunities for investment, manufacturing and product development within India. Rather than simply importing technologies or finished products, he said, Indian companies could participate in the development and localisation of Russian technologies, creating a more sustainable industrial relationship.

“If an Indian company can invest, manufacture or develop a product based on a Russian technology and make it suitable for the Indian market, that creates a much stronger partnership than simply importing the product,” he said.

He pointed out that localisation could also create opportunities for Indian companies to develop expertise around Russian technologies while simultaneously enabling Russian companies to gain greater access to the Indian market.

The CEO of the Indo-Russia “Innopraktika” Technology Hub further emphasised that technology cooperation could succeed only when the broader ecosystem required for innovation was in place. While technological capability was essential, he said, it had to be supported by appropriate industrial partners, market access, academic institutions, skilled professionals and entrepreneurs.

“Technology by itself is not enough. You need the right industry, the right market, the right academic institutions and the right people. All of these elements have to come together,” he said.

He also highlighted the need for greater awareness about technologies and opportunities available on both sides. According to Chakraborty, one of the challenges facing international technology cooperation was that potential partners were often unaware of the capabilities, products and research available in the other country.

“Sometimes the technology is there, but people do not know that it exists. We need to do better communication and better marketing so that Indian companies, universities and institutions know what Russian technologies are available and where collaboration is possible,” he said.

He said a stronger flow of information between the two countries would help identify technologies that could have practical applications in India while also creating opportunities for Indian companies and institutions to work with Russian counterparts.

Chakraborty placed particular emphasis on strengthening people-to-people and institution-to-institution engagement. He said technological partnerships could not be sustained solely through government-level agreements and high-level meetings and that researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, universities and businesses needed regular opportunities to interact.

“We need more people working together, more exchanges between universities and companies, and more opportunities for researchers and entrepreneurs from both countries to interact,” he said.

He said such interaction could create an environment in which ideas could be shared more freely, joint projects could be identified and long-term partnerships could emerge organically between institutions and businesses.

Chakraborty also referred to the need to move from discussions and broad agreements towards implementation. While high-level meetings were important for establishing priorities and identifying areas of cooperation, he said the real measure of success would be the number of projects that could be taken forward and converted into tangible outcomes.

“We have had high-level meetings and discussions, but the important thing now is to convert those discussions into projects. We need to identify the problem, identify the technology, bring the partners together and actually build something,” he said.

He said the technology hub was seeking to facilitate precisely this transition—from identifying a technological requirement to matching it with an appropriate technology, bringing together the relevant stakeholders and developing a pilot or commercial project.

Chakraborty said India’s expanding technology ecosystem and enormous domestic market offered significant opportunities for Russian companies seeking new avenues for collaboration. At the same time, Russia’s scientific and technological strengths could complement India’s capabilities in engineering, manufacturing, entrepreneurship and human resources.

“India is a very large market, but it is also a country with tremendous technological capability. Russia has its own strengths. If we can combine these strengths, there is a very good opportunity to create technologies and products that can be successful not only in India and Russia but potentially in other markets as well,” he said.

He said the emerging areas of cooperation could extend beyond traditional sectors and encompass a broader range of advanced technologies, hardware, engineering, materials, industrial applications and other emerging fields. The emphasis, he added, should be on identifying areas where the capabilities of the two countries were complementary and where joint efforts could result in commercially and strategically significant outcomes.

According to Chakraborty, the bilateral technology relationship also had the potential to strengthen India-Russia economic engagement by encouraging greater participation from the private sector and creating opportunities for companies from both countries to establish long-term partnerships.

He said a successful technology partnership would require a combination of scientific expertise, entrepreneurial initiative, industrial capacity and market understanding. Creating such an ecosystem, he added, would enable the two countries to make better use of their respective strengths.

The collaboration, he said, should ultimately be designed to produce technologies and products that could be developed, manufactured and commercialised through the combined capabilities of Indian and Russian partners.

Concluding his remarks, Chakraborty reiterated that India-Russia technology cooperation should be viewed as a long-term partnership rather than a transactional relationship. The two countries, he said, had an opportunity to create a new model of technological cooperation based on shared knowledge, joint development, localisation, investment and access to wider markets.

“We should not look at this simply as a buyer and seller relationship. It has to be a partnership where both sides bring something to the table, develop together and create value together,” he said.