New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on Monday met representatives of Russian and Indian businesses in New Delhi.

The business forum participants discussed issues to further enhance Russian-Indian practical cooperation, including within the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC).

Indian business representatives got acquainted with a cluster investment platform - a new measure of support, which can be applied to joint projects, the Russian Embassy in India said in a tweet.

The platform provides soft loans for the manufacturing of priority products, subsidies for pilot batches, preferences for insurance premiums and income tax.

Addressing the gathering, Manturov, who is also Russia's Minister of Industry and Trade, termed IGC a "unique mechanism" for comprehensive discussion of topical issues on the Russian-Indian agenda.

"The IGC is a unique mechanism for a comprehensive discussion of topical issues on the Russian-Indian agenda with the participation of specialised departments and organizations of the two countries. We are talking not only about trade and economic relations, but also about humanitarian areas of interaction, such as education and culture," Manturov said.

Manturov, who arrived earlier today in New Delhi, spoke about the measures taken to strengthen Russia's "technological sovereignty".

He noted that there is no goal to completely replace everything.

"We will rely on trusted foreign partners. We will make every effort to expand our cooperation ties to exchange competence and experience in the most promising technological areas," he said.

Russian Embassy said in a tweet that particular importance has been attached to the issues of mutual access of products to the markets of both nations. "Together with the Eurasian Economic Commission, it is planned to intensify negotiations with India to conclude a free trade agreement."

It said an agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investment is being worked out.

"Additionally, the issue of signing a #RussiaIndia agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investment is being worked out. Trade preferences and mechanisms that guarantee the safety of investment will be in demand by both Russian and Indian businesses."

Sergey E Cheremin, Minister of Moscow City Government, told the media that they discussed the opportunity of wider cooperation with Indian banks and Russian commercial banks. He said that Russia is looking at the opportunity to promote cooperation in pharma, manufacturing, car manufacturing, producing spare parts and telecom equipment.

"We discussed the opportunity of wider cooperation with Indian banks and Russian commercial banks, because of the misbalance in the bilateral trade between the two countries," Sergey E Cheremin said.

"We are looking at the opportunity to promote cooperation in pharma, manufacturing, car manufacturing, producing spare parts, microelectronics, and telecom equipment. We will support the joint efforts to promote our bilateral technoparks for start-ups in the field of IT & digitalisation," he added.

Cheremin stressed that Russia is seeking to enhance inter-regional cooperation between Indian states and "our national regions".

"We want to enhance interregional cooperation between the states of India & our national regions. We are ready to look at the opportunity to sign a cooperation between the Maharashtra government-Moscow & Uttar Pradesh government-Moscow city government that will be our next page of development with smart and safe city cooperation," he said.