The leaders of ASEAN countries and India gathered in New Delhi for the 12th Technology Summit and Technology Platform organised by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with ASEAN during 6-7 November 2006, New Delhi. During the Summit, a joint statement was issued to realise the objectives of the India-ASEAN partnership for peace, pr
ogress and shared prosperity. It was jointly announced that India and ASEAN collaborative R&D and technology development in common areas of interest would be undertaken through creation of a common ASEAN-INDIA S&T Development Fund (AISTDF) under Global Innovation & Technology Alliance – GITA (a private limited company under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956, promoted jointly by Confederation of Indian Industry and Technology development Board (TDB) of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India) framework. In the 6th India-ASEAN Summit held in Singapore on 21st November 2006, the honourable Prime Minister of India announced an initial corpus fund of 1 million US dollar for this S&T funds. To initiate actions under this fund, Ministry of External Affairs and Department of Science and Technology, India have contributed US$ 500,000 each (totalling US$ 1 million) and transferred the total fund to GITA. A decision to set up a virtual ASEAN-INDIA Technology & Commercialisation Centre (TICC) was unanimously taken at the India ASEAN S&T working group meeting held on July 7, 2008 at Manila. This virtual centre is spearheaded by Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) in partnership with ASEAN Secretariat. GITA has approached Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre (A joint initiative of CII & Government of Tamil Nadu) to aid in the establishment of the centre through its services.
