During the meeting of 3rd Indo-German Working Group for cooperation on water and waste management which concluded in New Delhi, both sides discussed potential cooperation in this area. Both sides decided to work on developing reference documents for the textile sector, Water Governance, Marine Litter, waste to energy landfill sites, water quality management, training and capacity building of local bodies and Circular Economy.

The Union Cabinet has approved the MoU between India and Finland for collaborating based on mutual interest in the field of Biotechnology, for funding and implementing ambitious industry-led innovative and transnational projects within the broad scope of research development and innovation. The MoU will support creation of long-term R&D and Innovation collaboration mechanism and to strengthen cooperative network between Indian and Finnish organizations.

The government launched NCAP, a time-bound national level strategy to tackle increasing air pollution. The NCAP will be a mid-term, five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year. However, the international experiences and national studies indicate that significant outcome in terms of air pollution initiatives are visible only in the long-term, and hence the programme may be further extended to a longer time horizon after a mid-term review of the outcomes.

In Bloomberg 2019 Innovative Index, India has debuted among the world’s most innovative countries and has grabbed the 54th position among 95 countries with a total score of 47.93 out of 100. The top 20 nations in 2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index are: South Korea, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore, Sweden, United States, Japan, France, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, China, Norway, UK, Australia and Canada.

Indian motorcycle giant and the world’s largest motorcycle and scooter manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp, have announced their first R&D Centre in Stephanskirchen, Germany and is simply called the Hero Tech Center Germany GmbH. The centre will focus primarily in the development of new vehicles concepts and future technologies. This new facility in Germany will only help the company move further into creating newer products and maybe even bigger international markets.

Union Cabinet has given its approval to the Setting up of a new company under Department of Space (DoS), to commercially exploit R&D work carried out by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Centers and constituent units of DOS.  The cabinet decision will definitely encourage the private sector to indulge more in production of launchers and satellites.

Cabinet has approved Continuation of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and for incurring expenditure up to Rs. 1000 crore (€125 million) till 2019-20 by Atal Innovation Mission for expanding Atal Tinkering Labs to 10,000 schools in view of their huge success at school level. The aim of the government's flagship initiative is to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. 

A new National industrial policy, aimed to develop global value chains, and to boost India’s manufacturing competitiveness, is awaiting cabinet approval.  Manufacturing cannot happen end to end only in one geography, and it has to be part of a global value chain and global supply chain. That is why a new industrial policy focusing on developing mutually beneficial value chain and supply chains is required.

The Cabinet has approved National Policy on Electronics 2019 in February 2019, which was proposed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) in 2018. The Policy aims to position India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets, and creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.  NEP 2019 replaces NEP 2012.

The government will soon approve the power tariff policy which would provide for a penalty for unscheduled power cuts except in the case of technical faults or act of God (natural calamities) by distribution companies from April 1, 2019. In addition, second version of UDAY scheme (UDAY 2.0) meant for revival of debt-laden discoms is being worked out and would be launched with more technological interventions to reduce their Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses.