India is seeking closer links between German research and Indian manufacturing as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met heads of selected Fraunhofer Institutes in Berlin on Oct. 23.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the roundtable explored stronger research cooperation and closer links between academia and industry. Topics ranged across microelectronics, power electronics, logistics, smart manufacturing, industrial innovation and battery technologies. The ministry characterized the exchange as exploratory and announced no signed agreement, named project, fresh funding or delivery schedule.
Separately, ANI reported that Goyal spoke at the Berlin Global Dialogue, where he linked India’s trade agreements to opportunities for joint research and manufacturing with Germany. ANI quoted him saying India had “opened its doors to global trade” and describing opportunities to “co-develop, co-design, co-create” with German partners. The ministry’s account confirms the Fraunhofer roundtable but does not identify that event as the setting for his comments.
India and the European Union concluded free trade agreement negotiations on Jan. 27, 2026, after restarting talks in 2022. The European Commission says legal revision may still alter the published text, with signature settling the final wording. The agreement will bind both sides after each completes domestic procedures, according to the Commission. Its India agreements page lists a Sept. 11, 2026, proposal seeking Council authorization to sign and conclude the pact.
In a Sept. 3 release, the ministry said India’s nine FTAs spanned economies with about $60 trillion in GDP and would provide preferential access to nearly two-thirds of global trade. It projected that additional agreements and market-access work could widen that share to 75% of global trade, at rates below competitors’ rates. The $60 trillion figure describes the economies covered by the FTAs; the access percentages refer to global trade.
The ministry’s itinerary set the Germany-Netherlands visit for Oct. 22-27 and listed roughly 100 firms and startups in Goyal’s delegation.
