Parliament hosted the Europe India Centre for Business and Industry's India (EICBI) Technology Summit.

Co-organised by Sivaleen Associates and Empact Ventures, this curated event aimed to establish an understanding of the major technological challenges and opportunities in India and the UK, and to connect and enable people, companies and communities to work together. 

Since it was first held in 2012, the EICBI’s summits have engaged more than 2700 delegates from over 1000 companies.

Kosta Mavroulakis, Founder and CEO at Empact Ventures, who is also the UK Vice Chairman of EICBI, said, "The summit came at a critical time for the UK economy as it faces a crossroads in its relationship with the rest of the world.

"It brings together leaders of businesses of all sizes to discuss opportunities for the collaboration which is an important step towards strengthening the longstanding partnership between India and Britain”.

Sujit Nair, Chair of the Europe India Centre for Business and Industry added that “the agenda for the summit is structured in a way to make these companies aware of these opportunities and to encourage them to invest in India.”

This year's summit was introduced by Virendra Sharma MP, with other MPs in attendance including Preet Kaur Gill, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Bob Blackman and Ruth Cadbury.

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Virendra Sharma MP, Chair of the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group, said “Summits like the India Technology Summit in Parliament help in bringing together on one platformvarious stakeholders who are keen to have a strong relationship between the UK and India.

Since the summits attract other Members of Parliament and members of the House of Lords, it provides an opportunity for delegates from specific sectors to discuss their issues with MPs."

The panels were chaired by the teams behind Empact Ventures and Three Straight Lines from Bournemouth. Panelists included corporate technology leaders from the likes of Hays and Pizza Hut; tech startup founders like Flyero.com, ClickMechanic, Skignz, EFundamentals and Hollabox.com; investment platforms such as Seedrs; and leading agencies including LogicShore, Three Straight Lines and Rarely Impossible among others.

Manoj Agrawal, Director of Digital Services at leading recruiting experts Hays, explained how the 175-strong team he works with in India, supported by a core team of 30 in the UK, has used Agile techniques to deliver technology innovation in the areas of Cloud Computing, Data Science, and Machine Learning. 

Manoj said: “We have invested in creating a state of the art technology, innovation and digital delivery capability in India. A team of close to 200 engineers, based in the UK and India, within our Digital and Innovation function works in the most integrated fashion to provide solutions to business problems by harnessing the latest technological trends."

"Within this engineering hub based in India, we have successfully scaled Agile product delivery techniques to encompass close to 20 products and projects being delivered at any given point in time. These self-managing teams are organised without any hierarchy whereby every team member plays a specific role in product development.

"Our team in India is a core part of our business. The success of this team is a testament to the drive, passion, enthusiasm, and commitment shown by our colleagues in India.”