The roundtable witnessed participation from leading representatives of the Cypriot government and Indian technology sector, including Avinash Mudaliar, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HT Labs, the innovation and technology arm of HT Media Group. The discussions explored Cyprus’s growing role as a strategic gateway for Indian enterprises seeking expansion into European Union markets.
President Nikos Christodoulides, who assumed office in 2023 and is widely regarded as one of Europe’s reform-oriented leaders, outlined Cyprus’s vision to emerge as a global centre for technology, innovation, and strategic diplomacy. Drawing upon his experience as a former diplomat, Foreign Minister, Government Spokesperson, and political science scholar, the President emphasized the importance of international partnerships in shaping the future digital economy.
The engagement reflected the strengthening India-Cyprus Strategic Partnership, which is rapidly expanding beyond traditional diplomacy into investment, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, media-technology, and innovation-driven economic cooperation.
The proceedings commenced under the leadership of Evgenios Evgeniou, Chairman of Invest Cyprus, who framed the discussions around India’s rapid technological and entrepreneurial growth. Referring to India’s digital public infrastructure, startup expansion, and technology-led enterprises, Evgeniou established a strong foundation for bilateral cooperation between the two innovation ecosystems.
The discussions quickly shifted toward substantive issues including artificial intelligence-driven growth, startup acceleration, digital infrastructure, cross-border innovation frameworks, and the role of agile economies in shaping the future global technology landscape.
Speaking during the roundtable, Evgenios Evgeniou stated that leading Indian companies and entrepreneurs received direct insights from President Nikos Christodoulides regarding the opportunities Cyprus offers as a gateway to the European Union, a regional business hub for the Middle East, and an emerging investment destination across technology, financial services, education, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and advanced innovation ecosystems.
He further said that several major Indian enterprises demonstrated serious interest in exploring investments and long-term strategic partnerships in Cyprus. According to Evgeniou, Invest Cyprus will now conduct systematic follow-up discussions with participating organisations and entrepreneurs to facilitate deeper engagement and identify concrete co-building opportunities.
A major focus of the discussions remained Cyprus’s emergence as a business-friendly and innovation-oriented European base for Indian companies.
Dr. Nicodemos Damianou, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, presented Cyprus’s long-term strategy centred on innovation sandboxes, artificial intelligence enablement, startup acceleration, regulatory flexibility, and experimentation-driven business environments. He emphasized that the policy architecture is designed to allow companies to innovate rapidly while remaining integrated with European institutional frameworks.
Demetris Skourides, Chief Scientist of the Republic of Cyprus, reiterated the country’s ambition to become a regional innovation hub and strategic European entry point for Indian enterprises. He highlighted Cyprus’s internationally competitive Intellectual Property Box regime, which offers an effective tax rate as low as three percent on qualifying intellectual property income, along with a 120 percent deduction on eligible research and development expenditure.
Indian companies already operating from Cyprus also reinforced the country’s growing reputation as an effective European operational base for artificial intelligence companies, software-as-a-service enterprises, startups, digital platforms, and media-technology organisations seeking international expansion.
HT Labs presented its expertise across product engineering, artificial intelligence, consumer technology ecosystems, digital platforms, recommendation systems, content intelligence, and large-scale media-technology innovation. The company also shared its perspective on the future of artificial intelligence-led infrastructure and scalable technology systems.
Avinash Mudaliar’s participation attracted significant attention due to his extensive experience across product development, media, technology, and consumer internet businesses. Over the years, he has played a role in building and scaling multiple digital ecosystems and innovation-driven products across media, entertainment, content discovery, and platform sectors. His understanding of technology, artificial intelligence, user behaviour, and digital transformation positioned him among the principal voices representing the Indian delegation during the strategic discussions.
HT Labs also expressed strong interest in utilising Cyprus’s sandbox environments and innovation-focused regulatory frameworks to test and scale its emerging Technology-as-a-Service and Slurrp businesses. Discussions explored opportunities for collaboration across artificial intelligence-driven media systems, digital infrastructure, recommendation engines, content intelligence frameworks, and next-generation consumer engagement platforms, using Cyprus as an agile experimentation and European deployment centre.
Speaking during the engagement, Avinash Mudaliar said Cyprus is rapidly emerging as a strategic innovation bridge connecting India and Europe. He stated that the country’s ability to combine European market access with agile policymaking, startup-oriented thinking, and a collaborative innovation ecosystem makes it highly attractive for Indian businesses seeking global scale in artificial intelligence, media-technology, and digital infrastructure.
Demetris Skourides stated that Cyprus is building a future-ready innovation ecosystem focused on global collaboration in artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and emerging technologies. He highlighted incentives including the three percent Intellectual Property Box regime, 120 percent research and development deductions, startup and digital nomad visa programmes, and the country’s focus on entrepreneurial agility and international co-creation. He also pointed to the arrival of global innovation ecosystems such as Plug and Play and semiconductor design company Tenstorrent, while noting that the technology sector contributes nearly 16 percent to Cyprus’s Gross Domestic Product.
The engagement also highlighted the contribution of Stavros Stavrou, President of the Cyprus-India Business Association, whose efforts played a major role in strengthening India-Cyprus commercial and innovation ties. His leadership helped facilitate open engagement between governments, investors, startups, and technology executives throughout the proceedings.
Following the formal sessions, Stavros Stavrou and Demetris Skourides held extensive post-event discussions focused on long-term India-Cyprus collaboration opportunities, artificial intelligence ecosystems, innovation sandboxes, and future technology partnerships between Indian enterprises and Cyprus. The discussions reflected a strong commitment toward sustained engagement and strategic technology cooperation.
Officials from the Cyprus ecosystem also acknowledged HT Labs’ participation, reflecting the seriousness with which Cyprus is pursuing long-term collaboration with Indian innovation leaders.
By the conclusion of the investors’ roundtable, Cyprus had firmly projected its ambition not merely to participate in Europe’s innovation landscape, but to actively shape it. For Indian enterprises seeking expansion into European markets, Cyprus presented itself as an increasingly strategic and innovation-driven gateway into the continent.
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