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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EU-India

India and Denmark sign MOU for developing cooperation between two countries in the power sector

2020-07-17 205 0

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Indo-Denmark Energy Cooperation between the Ministry of Power, Government of the Republic of India and the Ministry for Energy, Utilities and Climate, Government of the Kingdom of Denmark to develop a strong, deep and long-term co-operation between two countries in the power sector on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit was signed on 5th June, 2020.

The MoU provides for collaboration in areas like offshore wind, long term energy planning, forecasting, flexibility in the grid, consolidation of grid codes to integrate and operate efficiently variable generation options, flexibility in the power purchase agreements, incentivize power plant flexibility, variability in renewable energy production etc. The Indian electricity market would benefit from cooperation with Denmark in these areas.

TAGS #EUINDIA

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EU wants to work with India on resource efficiency & circular economy: European Commission

2020-07-17 208 0

The European Union (EU) wants to work with India on issues of resource efficiency and circular economy, a European Commission official said. Astrid Schomaker, Director, Global Sustainable Development, Directorate General for Environment, European Commission Brussels, said the EU is looking forward to engaging with India as it moves towards the presidency of the G-20 in 2022. She was speaking at a webinar on 'Resource efficiency for greening of recovery and fostering sustainable economic growth in a resource constrained world'.

TAGS #EUINDIA

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EU, India invite joint research proposals on integrated local energy systems

2020-07-17 221 0

India’s Department of Science & Technology and the European Commission’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency have issued a joint call for proposals that aims at smartly integrating large amounts of renewable energy in local energy systems in Europe and/or India and in this way make energy supply cleaner, more efficient and affordable. The proposals should develop and demonstrate novel solutions, integrating all energy vectors (electricity, heating, cooling, water and wastes), including possibilities offered by batteries and electric vehicles; interconnect them; and optimize joint operation with increased share of renewables and a higher energy efficiency.

TAGS #EUINDIA

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