An India strategy for Belgian industry, higher education and federal and regional policy making: Towards closer and increased collaboration in science and innovation A concept note for two events in Brussels (Belgium): A roundtable ex-ante the Belgian Economic Mission to India (23-29 November 2013) A symposium ex-post the Belgian Economic Mission to India Why an India strategy? Consider two important examples of the ways in which the relationship between Europe and India is evolving these days: 1. There is a growing shortage of certain types of engineers in Europe. In Belgium, there is a structural shortage of at least 3.000 engineers. In Germany alone, there are 95.000 unfilled positions for engineers; the cost of this to Europe s largest economy is an estimated 7 billion Euros annually. We see that some of the university laboratories are getting emptier and emptier, no matter how good their facilities are and no matter how much their professors are willing to teach and guide researchers. The fact is that European youth currently prefers to study psychology or arts, history and philosophy to engineering. Contrast this European reality with India: each year, hundreds of thousands of new Indian engineers are ready for the job market. Eager to learn, prepared to work hard and carefully selected, they are the first pool for Europe to draw from in order to help fill its gap of highly skilled employees for the next 5 to 10 years. India has her problems too: her higher education landscape is one-dimensional and monochromatic, to give just one example. The country does not train her students in the wide range of competences needed in today s companies and research centres. But Indian higher education can overcome these problems: sending students, researchers and employees to Europe for training periods, for example, is one of the strategies that India is already using successfully to help bring the European experience and expertise to India. In one sense, Europe's problem is more difficult to solve and more acute: how will Europe become attractive to the highly skilled young Indians it so badly needs? Currently, continental Europe is not attractive to them the US and the UK still are, but Europe is not. Moreover, the way we usually approach Indians does not help; on the contrary.
2. European health care is coming under increasing pressure: on the one hand, its quality is excellent, both in terms of service and expertise; on the other hand, the available budgets are shrinking quickly. When European medical doctors visit India, they are shocked by what they see: sophisticated state-ofthe-art infrastructure and instruments are available in almost every neighbourhood of the big cities and sometimes even in remote areas. Agreed, not all personnel is capable (as yet) and adequately trained to work with it, but learning to do so will take place in the next years; there is no question about that. Compare this to the waiting lists in European hospitals that are growing longer and longer and the shrinking budgets for infrastructure and instruments. Each of us cannot but realise that the Indian potential for growth in health care absolutely dwarfs Europe. In both examples (and there are many more like that in the domains of bioscience engineering, urban planning, veterinary sciences, harbour infrastructure, logistics, etc.), Europe has a window of 5 to 10 years to create a strong bond with India and sustain its own growth. For this goal, Europe must use the unique qualities it has developed in the past centuries. It is our conviction that we must, at least partly, focus on (1) the European excellence in higher education, (2) its connection with academic research and (3) its capacity to transfer research results to society in an integrated way, when we think about collaborating with Indian partners. The question, however, is whether we have thought about how to relate to India. Belgium and its non-existent India-strategy European representatives often do not know how to leave behind an impression on their Indian partners which leads to a sustained contact. Neither Belgium nor its regions (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels) are exceptions here. The reasons are simple: 1. Europe is not a well-known brand in India and it is often not recognised as an entity with specific properties, qualities, advantages and disadvantages. We do not say that that Europe as a concept does not have a reputation of quality and modernity which it has but we do feel the lack of its presence as a cultural entity in the perception of many Indians. 2. At the level of individual countries, most European countries confront a similar difficulty: they are not known in India, except for one or two of their main products or assets (e.g. chocolate or a sports team). The U.K., Germany and France are quite well known as countries, but Spain, Belgium and its regions, Portugal, Denmark,... are basically non-existent entities in the Indian mind. 3. At a lower level, Flemish, Walloon and Brussels universities and companies are almost unknown in India despite the tremendous efforts that the federal diplomatic representations (the Embassy and the Consulates), the regional touristic agencies and trade and investment agencies (Flanders Investment and Trade, Agence wallonne à l Exportation et aux Investissements étrangers, Brussels Invest and Export) do to promote them. Some Belgian universities and companies do have structural contacts with Indian partners, and we have many more agencies and departments that all do their piece of the job. But we can hardly say our higher education, industry or governments are well-known in India.
Nevertheless: 1. When visiting India as a university or as a company, we do not present ourselves as Europeans. This, in spite of several opportunities that would allow us to do so. We could, for example, easily make use of one of Europe's success stories the Erasmus Mundus programmes as an example of a long term, stable collaboration where excellence is highly valued. This could be an interesting route as Indians participate in large numbers in the Erasmus Mundus programmes. Or take the traditions of research in our culture: there is a deep and broad respect in European society for both knowledge and research which has led to the development of a unique research culture with a direct impact on society. This is both admired and respected in India. While establishing contacts with Indian partners, it would not be a bad idea to use this as a starting point. 2. We do not present our country and its regions as a part of Europe when we visit India. 3. We tend to focus on our own institution, company, or region while presenting ourselves to our Indian partners. The Indian partners meet dozens of European institutions on a daily basis. Not knowing what Europe consists of and being good businessmen, they easily sign an agreement. The assumptions about commitment to further collaborations are therefore often very different on both sides (European and Indian). Some ideas for an India strategy If we want to avoid the unsuccessful and ineffective way of approaching India that we are following today, we need to seriously think about and define a strategy towards India. All of us know that we will need India and its people in the coming decades: we will need their highly educated workforce, we will need their students, and we will certainly need their goodwill when they grow as a global power. If we agree on this, how should we proceed? In the following paragraphs, the India Platform raises a number of questions that can help us find a potential common strategy or aligned strategies. These questions have emerged from our own work and experiences in the last years. Answering these questions should by no means lead to rigid guidelines; each individual, each company, each partner and each institutional player should be able to use them to construct their own ways of dealing with their (potential) Indian partners. The India Platform thinks that if we do this (1) independent efforts will lead to sustained long-term collaborations, and (2) a Belgian trademark will slowly become visible for our activities in India. Such a trademark should by no means tape over the distinct identities of Belgium s regions, but should have a supportive effect on the regions activities. Guiding questions for the discussion 1. How should we focus on India? Should we focus on some specific regions in India? Or should we focus on India as a whole? The second option seems more difficult because of the size of the country. In the first option, we could pick out some of the states or even cities where Belgian players are more active than in others, and where our federal and regional policy makers support them more than elsewhere. In that case, the choice should be made mainly on the basis of existing and successful activities. For
example: we can use the activities of past state visits, economic and other types of missions, as a starting point for a geographical focus (this would mean Delhi Bombay Chennai). Or, we could make an inventory of the existing academic projects and activities. Or, we could ask government bodies such as the trade and investment agencies and the science and education departments to plot the (potentially) successful partnerships, and on that basis decide about the priority cities and regions. From the initial priority regions we could later replicate the strategies to other regions. 2. Should Belgium and its regions be more present in India? Or should they be present in a different way (PR, profiling, coordination, )? If yes, how should that be done? Which activities or actions have an impact on (potential) Indian partners? What kind of marketing strategies are effective in India? Can we use examples of other success stories and imitate them? Should we focus on enhancing the visibility of Belgium and its regions in India? If we think we should, how can we ensure that the different efforts at multiple levels reinforce each other (Wallonia, Brussels, Flanders Belgium Europe)? Who would be the preferred partners and the target groups in India for each of these levels? 3. Should we strive towards a balance between fundamental and applied research in our efforts? How should that balance look like? Should we encourage a bottom-up approach or/and should we adopt a strategic top-down approach for some time? 4. Which of the social-political-industrial players are important in decision-making in India? Are they structured in the same way as in Europe? Is there a similarity between the Indian and the Belgian state structure that can be taken advantage of if the option of a focus on specific Indian regions would be maintained? Should the Belgian regional governments try to connect with Indian regional counterparts, rather than aiming at the federal level? Can a minister have an impact on business or society in the same way as in Europe? Do successful businessmen influence academics or society in India? What kind of role do the media play in India? If all of these are different from the dynamics in Europe, how should we approach these different players? 5. How will we make use of the existing structures and organise an efficient network between as many different players as possible? Who can take the lead here? Should government representatives do this job, or should we work with a combination of different kinds of players here? The India Platform members have two suggestions as an answer to these questions: 1. We should work towards an efficient and effective network for collaborations with India, through which each member can contact another member easily and directly. This network should include as much expertise and experience from as many different domains as possible: diplomats, captains of industry, SME representatives, government representatives and policymakers, civil society participants, academia and researchers etc. The synergy of knowledge and competence available in this network should allow newcomers in collaborations with India to quickly find their way, and others to create synergy in existing collaborations where possible and desirable. 2. We should create a broad policy framework for collaborations with 21 st century India in science and innovation, based on the available experience and expertise in collaborations with India. This framework should thus help developing individual strategies of institutions and companies, and show the way towards an India strategy or several India strategies which would have a complementary role to play.
The two events mentioned above are an invitation to an open debate about these issues. We hope with this note to have prepared a fertile ground to let fruitful ideas grow. Sources of the background text: BALAGANGADHARA, S.N. 2012 India Platform. A vision document. Gent. (see www.india-platform.org > policy and vision) FISHER, KARIN 2013 'Great Possibilities, Thwarted Hopes' in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 February 2013 (accessed on 12 February 2013). FLANDERS INVESTMENT & TRADE 2013 India: de hype voorbij? in Wereldwijs, September 2013, Nr. 56, pp. LISBONNE-DE VERGERON, KARINE 2006 Contemporary Indian views of Europe. London: Chatham House.