EUROPE | JULY 2020| ISSUE 4

Message From SESEI

Greeting from Project SESEI!!!
Dear Readers,

This is the Fourth edition of the “SESEI Newsletter Europe”, comprising of news, latest updates and important developments concerning policy, legislation and market developments in the priority sectors of ICT, Smart Cities, Automotive, Energy Efficiency, Electrical and Electronics, Manufacturing etc. for the period of April to June 2020.

Starting, January of this year the clutches of Covid-19 are becoming stronger, the enormous social and economic consequences of the pandemic are becoming clearer by the day, and we’ll be feeling the effects on our lives and livelihoods for decades to come.

These unprecedented times have clearly indicated the need to strengthen India’s digital skills and education, growth of telecommunication infrastructure, availability of public wifi, push to new generation technologies, digitization of key services and industries both SME and MSME, financial inclusions, E-health services and above all a robust cybersecurity law and standards to support and safeguard the growing digital needs of the country.

As part of the economic reforms during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister of India has called for the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' or 'Self-Reliant India Mission'. As part of this mission announcement, numerous government decisions have been put in place such as funding, changing definition of MSMEs, boosting scope for private participation in numerous sectors, etc.

The Smart Cities control centers are playing an essential role in the battle against the covid-19 by turning their control rooms into Covid outposts to visualise the impact and analyse the situation in the city. Real-time surveillance, lockdown monitoring, and information-sharing capabilities by using technologies like IoT/sensors, tele-healthcare, Big Data, AI are significantly contributing in fight against Covid-19.

In the Automotive Sector, in line with the vision to make India automobile manufacturing hub in next 5 years, the Ministry is working on finalizing the vehicle scrappage policy under which recycling clusters will be established near the ports. The longstanding mission of the Indian Govt. for the country to go for all automotive to be all electrical by 2030 is also on the track. Suitable amendments to the EV Charging guidelines have been introduced and Govt. public sector enterprise - Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL), despite the covid-19 breakout is working actively on setting up more than 10,000 EV charging stations across the country.

Realizing the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is going to play a crucial role in the future, India is taking a leading role and joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI. EU along with France, Germany, Italy, US and UK are also members of the GPAI. India has also launched the first national Portal on Artificial Intelligence, as a one-stop digital platform for AI-related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, startups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies and educational institutions related to AI in India. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to hold a spectrum auction before October – but ignoring the 3,300-3,600 MHz band, intended for 5G, which means, likely there will not be a 5G spectrum auction in India this year. Apart from COVID-19, another possible reason for postponing the sale of 5G spectrum appears to be financial health of the Telecom Operators.

In another move, equipment vendors and Cellular Service Providers are opposing the need to submit the source code for the network equipment as part of the security assurance standards proposed by the department's National Centre for Communications Security (NCCS) citing the reason that they already adhere to worldwide standards practice and security compliance, which doesn’t demand for such a need.

Consumer electronics and electrical appliances have been worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic; Govt. have introduced production linked schemes to boost homegrown companies to reduce dependence on their imports while encouraging domestic manufacturing of these electronics/electrical items. Following the willingness by nearly 50 manufacturers or original equipment makers worldwide, Indian Public Sector companies such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) have floated an Expression of Interest (EOI) inviting global companies to partner with it and leverage its facilities and capabilities for setting up a manufacturing base in the country. Similarly, ITI, a state-owned telecom equipment maker is setting up an electronic manufacturing cluster (EMC) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) modified scheme.

Appreciating the role, which resource efficiency and circular economy will be playing to achieve sustainable development goals, India is aligning with Europe and a joint call of proposal have been initiated between India and Europe on integration of local energy system.

In this newsletter we have also gathered many other important news, directives and notifications as issued by various ministries which you may find useful and informative. We seek your comments and suggestions. I would like to conclude by praying for safety and good health for everyone. Happy Reading

Warm regards,

Dinesh Chand Sharma
Seconded European Standardization Expert in India (SESEI)

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Main News

Ministry of Power (MoP) has released following notifications:

2020-07-17 278 0

Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order to provide for Purchase Preference (linked with local content) in respect of Thermal Power Sector (FGD). Read more
Draft Standard on “Technical requirements for Photovoltaic Grid Tie Inverters to be connected to the Utility Grid in India” Read more
Draft Guidelines and model PPA for Implementation of Off-Grid Solar Power Plants in RESCO model under MNRE Programme. Read more
MNRE Invites Proposals for Developing a long-term vision, implementation plan, road map and institutional framework for implementing. One Sun One World One Grid”. Read more/Download
MNRE Extends Timeline for ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ Plan on Request by 22^nd July, 2020. Read more
Creation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Cell in MNRE for processing FDI proposals. Read more
Order for formation of Project Development Cell (PDC) for "Attracting Investments in India". Read more
Modifications in Scheme for “Development of solar parks and Ultra Mega solar power projects” –Regarding Read more

TAGS #Electrical #Electronics

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DST constitutes joint Science Communication Forum to promote common policy & best practices

2020-07-17 241 0

The Department of Science & Technology (DST) has constituted a joint Science Communication Forum with a view to facilitate interaction, cooperation, and coordination amongst various public sector science communication institutions and agencies. The Forum brings together science communication efforts spread across various institutions and can help adoption of a common policy and best practices at a wider scale, ultimately aiming towards a national science communication framework. It is represented by senior officials from various central ministries and departments, including Agriculture, Health, Culture, Defense, Space, Atomic Energy, and Information & Broadcasting, in addition to Science & Technology.

TAGS #R&D & Innovation

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India joins GPAI as founding member

2020-07-17 618 0

India joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI. GPAI is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth. With this, India has joined the league of leading economies including the US, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore to launch the global partnership.

This is a first initiative of its kind to evolve better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries, an official statement said. To achieve this goal, the initiative will look to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities, it said.

TAGS #ICT

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Govt modifies public procurement norms to give more preference to local suppliers

2020-07-17 336 0

The government has modified public procurement norms to give maximum preference to companies whose goods and services have 50 per cent or more local content, a move aimed at promoting 'Make in India' and making the country self-reliant. The revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017, has introduced a concept of Class-I, II and non-local suppliers, based on which they will get preference in government purchases of goods and services.

TAGS #Standards #IPR TBTs

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