Submitted by Angela Walters on Thu, 17/01/2019 - 11:51
Adam Matthews, CDBB’s Head of International, reflects on the success of the India-UK Future Tech Festival and looks forward to working bilaterally with India to promote high-tech digital construction.
The UK-India Future Tech Festival is a thought leadership summit bringing together policy makers, business leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to showcase the best Indian and UK tech companies. The well-attended event, which took place in New Delhi in December last year, was announced by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Theresa May in April 2018 as a major initiative under the India-UK Technology Partnership to champion technological leadership and grow prosperity and trade bilaterally.
CDBB was invited by the Department for International Trade (DIT) to join a trade mission comprising a number of the UK’s leading tech construction and infratech specialist companies and solution providers, and supported locally by officials from the Department for International Development (DFID), and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). The mission, including Rufus Logan, Business Development Director for India and SE Asia, Building Research Establishment (BRE); Dev Amratia, CEO nPlan; Malcolm Taylor, Technical Lead, Crossrail International; Paolo Matteuzzi, Senior Associate Zaha Hadid Architects; Alain Waha, Global Lead for BIM and Digital Transformation at Buro Happold, with representatives from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and from integrated design group, BDP; was invited to attend the event to explore commercial, investment, technology and skills transfer opportunities, setting a new path for India-UK collaboration.
UK Mission team (CDBB, BRE, nPlan, Zaha Hadid Architects, BDP, RICS, Crossrail International, Buro Happold) at the India-UK Future Tech Festival, Delhi, 12th December
The UK is widely acknowledged for its world-leading research in technology-driven digital construction and the digital built Britain programme, delivered by CDBB, reflects the benefits of digital transformation to the construction industry, including improved productivity, greater efficiency and de-risking projects. Building Information Modelling (BIM) sits at the heart of digital transformation across the UK built environment and has brought opportunity to generate shared strategic benefits bilaterally throughout Europe and beyond.
The India-UK Future Tech event provided an opportunity to meet with Indian government policy makers and professionals from India’s tech-in-construction companies to explore further avenues of engagement and collaboration at national and regional level. With the support of DIT and DFID, the mission held two roundtable meetings focused on the use of tech-in-construction applied to “Liveable Cities and sustainable infrastructure” with a cross-section of public officials and private industry; and secondly with Mr Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHU), India’s lead Ministry on Smart Cities, which discussed Smart City innovations, capacity building and solutions to the challenges faced in India.
With support from the DFID, DIT and FCO, the mission to the India-UK Future Tech resulted in positive meetings and discussions with government officials and business leaders from New Delhi and the wider region, and the collaborative spirit of the India-UK Technology Partnership bodes well for future trade between Indian and UK businesses.
Contact: Adam Matthews