Dublin and the Indian city of Bangalore are two "tech hot-spots" which should link rather than compete, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment told Indian and Irish exporters last night.
Micheál Martin who arrived in India yesterday to support this week's Irish trade mission to the country, said Irish business in the subcontinent was not just about increasing sales, but about "offering solutions".
He described globalisation, and India's growing presence into world markets, as the most profound commercial shift since the industrial revolution, saying the countries should help each other to "race to the top".
Mr Martin was speaking at a reception hosted jointly by the Asian Trade Forum of the Irish Exporters' Association and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
The two groups last night signed a charter designed to facilitate bilateral trade relations for their members. It covers areas where international trade deals commonly collapse, such as terms of trade, credit risk management and damage in transit.
Last year, bilateral trade between the Republic and India amounted to €262 million, a small sum in the context of India's total exports of about €65 billion.
That performance nonetheless marked a 105 per cent increase on three years previously, with exporters forecasting further growth of 40 per cent in 2006.
Walter D'Souza, chairman of the FIEO's international trade committee last night highlighted sectors such as biotechnology, IT, infrastructure and tourism - all of which are represented on the trade mission - as areas where there is most potential for expansion.
A number of the 130 organisations involved in the Government-led mission have already reached agreement with Indian counterparts, either to distribute products in India or to tap into each other's intellectual capital.
Dublin's Similarity Systems, which has designed technology to cleanse databases of information that is no longer needed, is, for example, forming links with Indian IT giant, Satyam, which has 22,000 employees. Water boiler firm Marco is organising an Indian distributor that will allow it to tap into India's booming tea and coffee markets.
The trade mission to India has created a stir in Bangalore, considered by many to be the most westernised of the subcontinent's cities.
While the delegation itself is working to raise awareness through extensive advertising in the business pages of local broadsheets, the same newspapers carry stories of traffic restrictions that are in place to facilitate the visit of the "Irish PM".
The mission will also stop in the capital Delhi and Mumbai.