EUROPE | April 2021

Message From SESEI

Greeting from Project SESEI!!!
Dear Readers,

We are pleased to present our seventh edition of “SESEI newsletter – Europe”. India, at present is grappling with the devastating effects of the second wave of the covid 19 virus. Steep rise in the covid cases has forced the states to impose complete lockdown until the numbers starts subsiding. With hope for “state of affairs” to become better and the country to return to normalcy, we bring to you this edition of the “SESEI Newsletter – Europe”, providing you with important snippets from India on the Project priority sectors covering ICT, Smart Cities, Mobility, Electrical Equipment including Consumer Electronics, Energy Efficiency and Environment, etc. for the period of January 2021 to March 2021.

The United Nations has raised India's growth forecast to 7.5% for calendar year 2021, marking a 0.2 per cent increase from its projection in January, but said the country's outlook for the year remains highly fragile. The surging Covid-19 infections and inadequate vaccination progress in many countries threaten a broad-based recovery of the world economy, said the World Economic Situation and Prospects report. With “Make in India” as the slogan, Government is intending to take many measurers of strengthening the standardization bodies. Following the EU example of Harmonisation of Standards and Single Market, which means One EN applicable among EU members while replacing 34 different national standards, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister has called for embarking on a mission of 'one nation one standard' and make India the leader in setting global benchmarks in setting standards. The minister said that BIS should explore international partnerships and associations to achieve synergy in the field.

National Standard body, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has brought out 'BIS Talks' Film’s series on standardization in different technology sectors to spread awareness about the benefits of standardization and status of its standardisation activities among various stakeholders such as industry, academia, research & development institutions, Govt. Bodies, laboratories etc. To support domestic manufacturing, the government has also proposed an increase in customs duty on certain imported components used in automobiles. Similarly, Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed all state- -owned companies, central ministries, and government departments to give preference to locally produced cybersecurity products in public procurement.

The production linked Scheme (PLI) has been launched across many sectors. The primary motive to encourage indigenous manufacturing and enhance uptake of Indian products is at the core of this scheme. Telecom PLI has already been approved by the government. The telecom and network equipment manufacturing giants like Nokia, Ericsson are looking forward to expanding their base in India. The scheme will cover core transmission equipment, 4G/5G and next-generation radio access network and wireless equipment, access, and customer premise equipment (CPE), Internet of Things (IoT) access devices, and enterprise equipment such as switches and router.

Indian Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), SmartCode, Smart Cities 2.0 website, and Geospatial Management Information System (GMIS) were also launched during this period. India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) Program toward building an Open-Source platform that facilitates secure, authenticated, and managed exchange of data amongst various data sources and consumers, we are pleased to inform that the IUDX Program will adopt ETSI’s NGSI-LD Application Programming Interfaces (API) specifications for its resource server. Ropeways and Alternate Mobility solutions which were earlier being reviewed by the Govt. think tank - NITI Aayog will from now onwards come under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This means that the Ministry will have responsibility for development of ropeway and alternative mobility solutions including its technology, construction, research, and policy in this area. Formulation of institutional, financial, and regulatory framework for the technology will also fall under the ambit of this move. SESEI worked closely with NITI Aayog and BIS on the safety standards required for the Ropeways based on the CEN standards.

Moving towards Electrical Vehicles by 2030, the government is also stressing upon shift towards a completely indigenous battery technology in the coming years. This could be metal-air, metal-ion, and other potential technologies in the R&D pipeline.

After a hiatus of eight years, trade talks between India and the 27-member grouping will "resume" for the possible conclusion of a 'Free Trade Agreement' (FTA) between the two sides. Keen to accelerate investments, technology and capital flows from the EU, India wants the investment and trade deals to happen parallelly and independently which means both the investment deal and trade deal will be addressed parallelly and independently.

India – Finland also held its virtual summit - both sides reviewed the ongoing bilateral engagements and expressed their desire to further expand and diversify the relationship across sectors such as trade and investment, innovation, education, emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, 5G/6G, and quantum computing etc.

The Newsletter carries information on many other important topics related to investment landscape and market synopsis concerning important project priority sectors in India. We also provide you details of the upcoming important events/ seminars and workshops. Draft standards formulated by the standardization bodies are also annexed with this Newsletter.

Hope you will find this Newsletter informative. Happy Reading!!!!

Warm regards,
Dinesh Chand Sharma (Seconded European Standardization Expert in India)
Director – Standards & Public Policy
Mobile: +91 9810079461, Desk: +91 11 3352 1525
E-mail: dinesh.chand.sharma@sesei.eu

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EU-India

India, Denmark chalks out Action Work Plan

2021-05-20 233 0

India and Denmark announced the Green Strategic Partnership last year following the virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen. Following the summit, a joint statement issued listed out the core sectors of cooperation in the Green Strategic Partnership and mandated an Action Work Plan to be worked out for the next five years. In accordance with the decisions, the Danish Embassy has stationed four sector experts in the capital to liaise with the Indian authorities and give shape to the Green Strategic Partnership. Experts in the four core sectors - urbanization, water, energy and IPR - speak about how the partnership can be taken forward.

TAGS #IPR

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First India-EU IPR dialogue held in the field of Intellectual Property Rights

2021-05-20 208 0

The 1st India-EU IPR dialogue was held on 14^th January 2021 between the EU Commission and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) through a virtual platform. The aim of the dialogue was to further strengthen the India-EU relation & facilitate enhanced cooperation in the field of Intellectual Property Rights. The meeting was co-chaired by Sh. Ravinder, Joint Secretary, DPIIT and Mr. Carlo Pettinato, Head of Unit Investment & Intellectual Property, DG Trade, European Commission, jointly hosted by EU Commission and DPIIT.

TAGS #IPR

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India-Finland Virtual Summit

2021-05-20 271 0

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland H.E. Ms. Sanna Marin held a Virtual Summit and discussed the entire gamut of bilateral issues as well as other regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. The two leaders reviewed the ongoing bilateral engagements and expressed their desire to further expand and diversify the relationship across sectors such as trade and investment, innovation, education, emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, 5G/6G, and quantum computing. PM appreciated Finland’s leading role in clean and green technologies and noted the potential for Finnish companies to partner India’s drive towards sustainable development.

TAGS #PM #5G

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First India-EU IPR dialogue held in the field of Intellectual Property Rights

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TAGS #EU #economic

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India keen on investment, trade talks with EU

2021-05-18 206 0

India wants to start negotiations on an investment deal with the European Union simultaneously with a trade agreement in a renewed push to boost bilateral ties with the trade bloc. Keen to accelerate investments, technology and capital flows from the EU, India wants the investment and trade deals to happen parallelly and independently. “Both the investment deal and trade deal will have to happen parallelly and independently. The EU has said it is ready to consider launching negotiations on a standalone investment protection agreement, which would increase legal certainty for investors on both sides.

TAGS #EU

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