NSW strengthens Australian technology links with India

Cicada Innovations’ HQ in Redfern. Photo: Cicada Innovations

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade Stuart Ayres have met with Indian tech companies in Bengaluru to promote collaboration between NSW and India, including the space sector.

“NSW is working to attract Indian technology investment into NSW across subsectors including edtech, medtech, fintech and space technologies,” Mr Perrottet said.

“We are focused on linking the NSW and Indian technology ecosystems and through the expansion of our international network and programs we are providing better support for NSW exporters to reach their target markets and help open more doors.

Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade Stuart Ayres said business event in Bengaluru with Indian technology companies provided the opportunity to showcase NSW technology capabilities to potential partners and investors.

“Sydney is Australia’s technology hub and a thriving technology sector with innovative precincts like Tech Central and our Startup and Scaleup Hubs making our state even more attractive to companies looking to grow in the Asia-Pacific region,” Mr Ayres said.

India-headquartered HCL Technologies has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sydney Quantum Academy to strengthen HCL’s Quantum computing capabilities through education and development opportunities including internships for Australia-based students from Sydney Quantum Academy member universities. Quantum computing is an emerging sector in NSW. By 2040, Australia will potentially have 16,000 quantum jobs generating $4 billion in revenue.

NSW deep technology incubator and operator of the National Space Industry Hub located within Sydney’s Tech Central, Cicada Innovations and Bengaluru-based Mach33.aero have signed a collaboration agreement to provide launch pad support to startups and medium sized enterprises from the two countries operating in deep technology. Bengaluru is the world’s fourth largest tech cluster and has 40 per cent of all startup venture capital in India. It is the epicentre of India’s IT-enabled services, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors, home of India’s highly successful space program, and India’s largest startup ecosystem, with around 5,000 startups.

The NSW government move follows the Australian Department of Industry Science and Resources’ announcement in March of a $25 million expansion of the International Space Investment (ISI) initiative. This will enable Australian organisations to work with the Indian Space Research Organisation and the broader Indian space sector. Australia is also supporting India’s Gaganyaan manned spaceflight mission which will make India only the fourth nation to send humans into space in a launch vehicle of its own construction.

India’s space program is expected to grow by US$43 billion to 2025, says the Agency. Australia and India have a long history of working together in space and in 2021 signed a memorandum of understanding relating to space activities.

Meanwhile, the NSW government has opened a new Indian trade office in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. In 2020-21 India was NSW’s third-largest source of international students, sixth largest source of tourists and 11th largest two-way trading partner, with two-way merchandise trade reaching $4.6 billion. To boost awareness of Investment NSW’s presence in India, a new strategic marketing campaign is now live, operating across digital platforms including LinkedIn and in print in India’s leading daily newspaper The Economic Times.

Vish Padmanabhan, NSW’s Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to India and the Middle East, said his team will help NSW businesses take advantage of the new Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA) bilateral trade agreement.

And Indian business leaders will visit NSW to explore key investment opportunities firsthand in October 2022. The delegation will comprise f leaders across a range of sectors including tech, health and clean economy with the focus of the visit on industry precincts such as Tech Central, the Westmead Health & Innovation Precinct, Bradfield and the Western Sydney Parkland, and regional NSW’s Special Activation Precincts.

Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade and Minister for Tourism and Sport Stuart Ayres said the visit will coincide with NSW hosting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for the first time.