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

Final decision on customs duty on solar equipment to be announced soon: Government

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The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is likely to clarify the matter of basic customs duty (BCD) on imported solar equipment within the next two months. A 20 percent basic customs duty had been announced in the last budget but has not been imposed yet. Developers have been keenly awaiting such a clarification since the duty will impact their cost of setting up a project and thereby the tariff they charge for the power generated.

TAGS #Standards #IPR

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Telecom Regulatory (TRAI) issued following Consultation Papers/recommendations:

2020-07-17 208 0

Consultation Paper on Methodology of applying Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) under the weighted average method of SUC assessment, in cases of Spectrum Sharing. Read more/Download
Recommendations on Network Testing Before Commercial Launch of Services for Wireline Access Services. Read more/Download
Consultation Paper on Regulation of International Mobile Roaming Services. Read more/ Download
Recommendations on Ensuring Adequate Numbering Resources for Fixed Line and Mobile Services. Read more/Download

TAGS #ICT

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Govt initiates consultation process for new science, technology and innovation policy

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The government has initiated a consultation process for formulation of a new national Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020). The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (Office of PSA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have jointly initiated a decentralised, bottom-up and inclusive process for the formulation of the new policy.

The fifth S&T policy of the country is being formulated at a crucial juncture when India and the world are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. "As the crisis changes the world, the new policy with its decentralised manner of formation will reorient STI in terms of priorities, sectoral focus, the way research is done, and technologies are developed and deployed for larger socio-economic welfare.

TAGS #R&D & Innovation

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India moves up to 74th position on Global Energy Transition Index

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World Economic Forum (WEF) announced that India has moved up two positions and has ranked 74^th on a global energy transition index. WEF released the annual rankings on May 13, 2020. With a better ranking, India has shown improvement in key parameters of economic security, economic growth, and environmental sustainability. WEF is a Geneva-based international organization that is for public and private cooperation. Releasing the ranking it further stated that the ongoing COVID-19 crisis will compromise the transition to clean energy by both the developed and developing countries.

TAGS #energyefficiency

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