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India asks Germany to ensure safety of Indian IT pros

India has asked the German government to take care of the safety of Indian professionals coming to Germany.

"The government should take good care of the safety of people who come here (Germany)," Science and Technology Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said when asked for his reaction to the incident of an Indian researcher being beaten up at Leipzig in Saxony in eastern Germany last week.

He told newsmen after holding talks with German Education and Research Minister Edelgard Bulmahn in Berlin that he was not aware of the motive behind the incident.

He made the comment on German government's responsibility when a reporter pointed out to him that the researcher was apparently targeted because he was "an Indian".

The Indian researcher, whose name has been withheld, was beaten by three suspects and bitten by a dog on June 12 in an apparent anti-foreigner violence in eastern Germany.

Police have arrested all the three suspects, two of them reported to be teenagers and one 26-year old man.

The attack on the Indian researcher, who was on a short-term visit, came within a couple of days after a 39-year-old man from Mozambique died in a hospital in Dessau in another eastern German state of Saxony Anhalt.

The Mozambiquan, a father of three, received serious injuries when three young men allegedly known to police as neo-nazi thugs beat him up. Police had arrested the three suspects after they attacked the African in a city park in Dessau.

India offers to promote R&D in Germany

India has offered to promote its R&D capabilities in Germany in select areas for transboundary contract research programmes and share its expertise with German faculties in managing information and software technology courses.

Visiting Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi during official talks with German Education Research Minister Edelgard Bulmahn in Berlin made the offer.

Addressing a joint news conference after the meeting, Bulmahn said India and Germany had agreed to set up a task force in environment research and intensify cooperation in the space field.

Joshi, who is the first Indian Science and Technology Minister to visit Germany in 22 years, said the German government's green card programme to woo computer specialists from India and other non-EU countries reflected scope of international cooperation in specialised fields.

"It (the green card initiative) is not only natural but also desirable," said Joshi on the second day of his four-day visit to Germany.

Joshi said export of Indian technology to Germany would greatly benefit the German consumer. "Indian technology is of international quality and competitive in prices," he said referring to the world renowned skills of Indian computer software specialists.

Both Joshi and Bulmahn wanted an increase in exchange of students and research scholars and exploring possibilities for major research programmes of interdisciplinary nature.

About 700 Indian students are studying in various German academic institutions. There are only about 100 German students in India, according to Bulmahn.

Joshi also wanted the German government to streamline procedures to facilitate Indian information technology companies to set up shops in Germany.

Bulmahn noted that the nearly 700 joint Indo-German research projects completed in the past 25 years had resulted in several joint patents. At present, about 110 joint research projects are being pursued.

She referred to the emphasis being placed on Indo-German mission mode programme in identified priority areas like advanced material sciences, biotechnology and genetic engineering, space and ocean sciences and medical and health research.

PTI

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