Swiss Ambassador to India Ralf Heckner has said that India is an important strategic partner for Switzerland in the digital era. “India is an incredible hub of innovation and Switzerland looks forward to collaborating with India to promote scientific research, academic and technical cooperation to the next level driven by Indian innovation, which is gaining rapid global appreciation,” Dr. Heckner said during an interaction with researchers and faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) here recently.
As part of its silver jubilee celebrations, the IIM-K, along with Malabar Milma, had jointly hosted the Swiss Ambassador on the campus on Saturday evening. He was in Kozhikode city to commemorate the legacy of Indo-Swiss success story in Kerala’s animal husbandry and dairying sector.
Dr. Heckner also recounted the journey of the success of the Indo-Swiss project in the State, which began in 1960s, as an example of unparalleled and astounding bilateral cooperation in the history of the Indian dairy sector. The Ambassador had also invited everyone to exchange ideas and suggest interventions that can further complement the future of cooperation between India and Switzerland.
Speaking on the occasion, IIM-K Director Prof. Debashis Chatterjee said that India and Switzerland were bound by shared values of deep democracy and the principles of neutrality and multilateral alignment with other nations.
Venu Rajamony, Officer on Special Duty on external cooperation for the Government of Kerala, and former Indian Ambassador to the Netherlands, added that “going beyond the historical partnerships, we have to now explore the possibilities of countries like India and Switzerland coming together to address challenges posed by the 21st century, in terms of a shared future.”
While expressing gratitude to the IIM-K and the Ambassador for coming together for the exchange of ideas, Malabar Milma chairman K.S Mani said Milma’s cooperative movement owed its success not only to such bilateral development associations but also to the one million strong family of dairy farmers in the State.
