By Ayushi AgarwalNew Delhi [India], December 1 (ANI): Underscoring the importance of bilateral ties with India, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday said that both India and the United Kingdom are ideally placed to use science, technology and digital leadership to meet challenges related to the security of emerging tech.

"Emerging technologies are fundamentally reshaping our economies and our daily lives. It is also presenting new challenges to our values and security, which I spoke about at the UN Committee Security Council on counter-terrorism last month. India and the United Kingdom are ideally placed to use our science, technology and digital leadership to meet these challenges and maximize these opportunities", he said while speaking virtually at the Global Technology summit here.

Hailing Bengaluru as the World's fastest-growing hub, he said that both India and United Kingdom believe in innovation as a force for good and to make Britain even more attractive in Tech Talent, the country is establishing its global tech development network in Bengaluru this year.

"Together we are a formidable team. We top our region's ranking in the global innovation index. Bengaluru is the fastest-growing tech hub in the world. London is number two. Our two countries both believe in innovation as a force for good. Last year, the UK attracted over a third of all the tech investment in Europe. India and UK have superb academic research base and four of the top 10 universities are found in the UK. The number of Indian students coming to the UK has more than doubled in the past three years. We want to make Britain even more attractive in Tech Talent. So, we are establishing our global tech development network in Bengaluru this year", he said.

The minister further highlighted India and UK's research partnership and stressed upon the sinister side of the digital age that needs to be protected from crime.

"The UK is India's second largest research partner across 200 projects, 175 institutions and 100 companies and now we are increasing research and development funding to 20 billion pounds by 2025. We expect 1.5 billion pounds of digital services to India and India's tech giants like Tata and Infosys, to support over 30,000 UK jobs. We are already working in so many ways to mobilize technology in our shared struggle against disease and against climate change", he said.

"But I also want to see democracies like ours address other challenges, the sinister side of the digital age. We have learned over the past 20 years that without the right values built in from the start, tech can create serious problems and there will be also those who will be seeing in each new opportunity or new innovation, a new opportunity for crime or repression. Just as we want to protect our natural world for children, so we need to ensure protect our digital world is free, safe and peaceful", he added.

The seventh edition of Global Technology Summit is being held from Tuesday in New Delhi till December 1 in a hybrid format. The Summit is India's annual flagship event on Geotechnology and is co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and Carnegie India. The theme for this year's Summit is 'Geopolitics of Technology. (ANI)