What do grey cloth and bedlinen have in common with embedded systems and nanotechnology? Nothing really, except in the context of this article: India is a leading exporter of the first two items to the 15-nation Europ-ean Union (EU), but not of high-tech products, such as on-board computers for motor cars (embedded systems) and equipment for medical diagnosis using cantilevers one micron in length (nanotechnology.

India is nowhere in the same league as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore when it comes to high-tech product exports. Most of its exports even today are low-tech, although exports of bones and human hair seem to have run their course. Yet, Indian scientists are active in space technology, biotechnology, embedded systems and micro-electro-mechanical systems, using nanotechnology.

While India has a wide-ranging collaboration with the European Space Agency, cooperation with the EU itself has taken a back seat. The possibility of closer India-EU co-operation was first discussed in 1997, and President APJ Abdul Kalam signed the first India-EU agreement on scientific and technological co-operation in 2001.

The two sides are now making up for lost time. The steering committee set up under the agreement is meeting here this week. By the end of the first day it had reached an agreement on three major areas. The next day was to be spent working out the details, and an agreement embodying the results of the three-day meeting was to be signed here on Friday, VS Ramamurthy, secretary, ministry of S&T, and leader of the seven-member Indian delegation said.

The agreement will enable young Indians with basic training in S&T to spend two or three years working in the EU and allow Indian scientists and institutions to participate more effectively in the proposals under the EU?s sixth Framew-ork Research Programme.

The fact that the agreement was reached so quickly is a measure of the confidence the Euro-pean scientific community has in its Indian counterpart. But it also reflects Europe?s growing shortage of scientific personnel. The European approach to filling this gap is different from the American. Given the difficulties facing Indian scientists wanting to immigrate to the EU, they will be here for just two to three years.

The agreement will do two things, Prof Ramamurthy said. To begin with, it will provide a structure for the movement of young scientists. This will ensure a continuous flow of young scientists to Europe. At the same time, the EU will be encouraged to send European scientists to India.

The second element provides for workshops on specific themes with European participation. The aim is to raise the quality of the joint research projects. The first of such workshops could be held early next year and be devoted to nanotechnology, according to Prof Ramamurthy. Costs would be shared, given that the earlier donor-recipient relationship is rejected by India now. The third element covers ongoing projects in the EU.

The agreement is only the first step towards more broad-based co-operation. Another member of the Indian delegation, Kota Harinarayana, vice-chancellor of Hyderabad University, pointed to an area in which Indian scientists are striding ahead ? surface transport technology. The changeover to non-polluting fuels is inevitable in the medium-term, Prof Harinarayana said. India will be testing some 200 vehicles running on hydrogen next year. Meanwhile, embedded systems are being developed by Indian scientists to ensure efficient fuel utilisation. Both the software and hardware for on-board computers for motor vehicles are being developed by Indian scientists.

The question is when will India begin exporting high-tech products? When will issues of anti-dumping take a back seat, and India-EU scientific co-operation move centre-stage? The fact is that India is already supplying high-tech equipment, including software, to the large hadron collider near Geneva. This is because India?s $20 million contribution to the European project is in kind. Its contribution to the EU?s advanced GPS Galileo project will also be in kind. The way to a dramatic change in the make-up of India?s exports is already open.