Defence, fintech pacts soon with India: Cyprus chief scientist

ALmost 3 months after ground government minister Narendra Modi’s see to republic of cyprus, the chief scientist for research and innovation (CSRI) of the Republic of Cyprus, Demetris Skourides, said on Wednesday that the actual cooperation in terms of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) in different spheres will now begin to take shape.Skourides was in Mumbai to attend the India-Cyprus summit on Thursday.In Modi’s meeting with the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, the discussions involved topics of research, innovation, trade and science. The two leaders also explored avenues for collaboration in fintech, start-ups, defence industry, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), among others.“Building on that, it opens up a discussion for us to develop and nurture and fine-tune, I would say, the actual cooperation,” said Skourides. “So, there will be an engagement in the next few months between our minister of Digital Policy, Research and Innovation and the counterpart ministry in India to start establishing MOUs where basically we outline how and where these areas are going to be there.”Despite the US and China taking the lead in AI, Skourides, who has worked with technology giants Oracle and Amazon Web Services, said India possesses a different potential in the domain.“The United States is very advanced when it comes to chips, and leading AI research that is happening on large language models. On the other side, China has a completely different approach,” he said.He added that India is carving out a space in the middle, where new technologies will complement AI. “Quantum, for example, in AI. India is one of the strongest countries in the world when it comes to quantum research. So, I think India is a country that is well positioned to balance and create value for artificial intelligence,” said Skourides. And that is because artificial intelligence is not only about the chip. It’s also about the other technologies that help us create more value.”Skourides was appointed CSRI in 2023 owing to the government’s emphasis on research, innovation and the digital transition.With many Indian start-ups showing interest in opening “innovation companies” in Cyprus, Skourides attributed this development to the ease of doing business in his home country. These range from an R&D discount of 120% and national funding through the Research and Innovation Foundation to access to EU R&D funding and being able to test their solutions for the EU market in addition to the Indian or ASEAN marketsIn addition to Cyprus’ priority areas of defence, energy and climate, artificial intelligence, and health, Skourides said the space sector is also an emerging area which is likely to see partnerships with India.“India is among the big five nations that are investing heavily into space. While Cyprus is not a space nation, the country has an emerging space ecosystem with companies that are building components, solutions, software, etc., that can actually work together to create a space ecosystem. So, space basically is an industry that we will be seeing evolving into what I call space tech,” he said.Steering in this direction, Skourides added that Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, is organising a space conference in November. “Indian companies have been invited, right, from the private industry to participate in the conference,” he said.