French Minister Jean-Noel Barrot lauds India's tech, UPI payment mode

By Ayushi Agarwal
New Delhi [India], November 18 : French Minister for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, Jean-Noel Barrot, who arrived in India on Friday, applauded India's technology and India's UPI payment method and said that both India and France have collaborated for ages in the technology domain adding that both the countries can learn more from one another.
The French Minister arrived in India to participate in the third edition of the "No Money for Terror" conference which is being organized in the national capital on November 18-19.
"France and India are great scientific nations that have collaborated for ages in the Space domain, Mathematics and in Technology more generally. I am very happy to be here at IIIT, very nice partnership has been set up between the university and the French university. This is very useful and one example of what we could do more between our two countries. There is a lot that se can learn from one another. We are very much impressed by what has been achieved in India with India's tech and UPI... And I am sure that there is a lot that Indian researchers and companies can also learn from what we have achieved in recent years in France to develop entrepreneurship and innovation," the Minister told ANI.
When asked about India's G20 presidency and what ambit France would like to discuss as far as G20 is concerned on digital infrastructure and digital transformation, the minister said that the country would like to stress on 'training of tech talent' and 'open infrastructure ' which is a common vision of both the countries.
"I think we want to discuss topics such as talent, training of tech talent which is an issue around the world....another one is open infrastructure. I think that this is a common vision that we have in India and France", the Minister said.
"It's great that India organized the 'No Money for Terror' conference this year after Australia and France. We were delighted to see that there is a strong commitment at the Prime Minister level. Mr. Modi opened the conference this morning to tackle this issue. This initiative is one of many that President Macron has launched to fight against terrorism and it has been acknowledged this morning that perhaps one of the most efficient ways to do that, is to tackle the financing of terrorism, an area where we are seeing new forms of finance emerging which calls for innovative ways to fight against the funding of terrorism. So, I am very confident that during these two days of the summit conclusions will be found and proposals will be made to more efficiently and collectively find against terrorism", the Minister added.
Earlier, during an address to the students at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Minister Barrot also spoke about the significance of technological innovation in Indo-French ties and tech opportunities in France for Indian students, researchers, and companies.
"France opens its system of higher education and research to talented scientific and innovative minds from all over the world so that by 2025 we would reach the objective of hosting and training 500 000 international students. 400 000 are already there and the number of Indian students would then be, according to President Emmanuel Macron's vision, 20 000", said the Minister.
Talking about India - France space collaboration, the Minister gave an example of Jacques Blamont ( Founder of the Scientific & Technical Director of the French Space Agency (CNES) and Vikram Sarabhai (the father of the Indian space programme).
"India plays a particular role: in fact, scientific exchanges between our two countries started several centuries ago, and in the history of exchanges, science and technology have become one of the most steadfast and enduring bonds between France and India./You probably all know how Jacques Blamont and Vikram Sarabhai have collaborated and contributed to the creation of ISRO the Indian Space Research Organisation. This fruitful collaboration and strong friendship between the two men is still active today between our respective National Space agencies" he said.
Earlier, Minister Barrot also met the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology of India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and discussed how France and India can jointly develop future technologies, in service of progress, sustainability, and our two nations' digital sovereignty.