French President Emmanuel Macron met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday at the Palais des Expositions in Nice, where the “Bharat Innovates” Indian tech showcase opened.
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The three-day event, backed by the Indian Ministry of Education and staged abroad for the first time, brings together 120 Indian deep-tech startups, 15 Indian higher education institutions and investors. It is designed to help build links between India’s innovation ecosystem and global stakeholders.
Speaking at the opening of the event, Macron hailed India as a “major innovation nation,” adding that he wanted to “convince” the investors present of “what France is”.
He pointed out that France is the EU country that has created the most jobs in artificial intelligence – a claim backed up by a recent LinkedIn study, revealed by Les Échos at the VivaTech fair, a major French tech event.
According to this study, based on advertised vacancies, nearly 20,000 AI-related positions have been created in Paris since 2023, more than in cities such as Berlin, Madrid, Munich or Dublin.
Modi’s trip to France follows Macron’s official visit to Mumbai in February.
The Indian PM was welcomed to Nice on Saturday by the local mayor, Éric Ciotti.
Ciotti said on X that the presence of the leaders at the tech event “confirms the growing place of our city in international exchanges, innovation, and economic development”.
Macron and Modi are next due to go to Villa Kérylos, an Ancient Greek revival style mansion in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, for bilateral talks, the Élysée confirmed to Euronews.
The French and Indian delegations will then travel separately to Évian-les-Bains in Haute-Savoie, which will host the G7 summit from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 June.
