Greeting from Project SESEI !!!

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to bring to you the twelfth edition of our “SESEI Newsletter India” in a new design and format. The focus of our Newsletter remains on bringing important updates and information around developmental work for new & emerging technologies, new standards and guidelines published and important research and growth-related activities being carried out in Europe around our project priority sectors.

As we are embracing new and smart technologies, “Standardization” is going to play a key role. ICT is the ll-encompassing and the key enabling technology towards convergence and integration of many things. Understanding the importance of standards, ETSI has released a new set of classroom teaching materials on ICT standardization. This will help in exposing the engineering students to the world of standards, beyond studying or working with specific technical specifications.

Security of ICT and other related technologies is one of the most important areas of concern as well as focus. More and more sensitive and personal data is available in virtualized environment and it has become a common concern around the globe to establish infallible cybersecurity laws as well as standards. The European Commission (EC) has recommended a set of operational steps and measures to ensure a high level of cybersecurity of 5G networks across the EU. The recommendations are a combination of legislative and policy instruments meant to protect economies, societies and democratic systems. In this regard, ETSI’s Technical Committee on Cybersecurity (TC CYBER) has released one of the first globally applicable cyber security standard for consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices to help secure sensitive data in virtualized environments. ETSI TS 103 457 tackles the challenge of secure storage - where organizations need to protect customer data when using a cloud that is not under their direct control.

The European Commission is stepping up its efforts on sustainability, clean technologies and protection of environment and its citizens. Recently, the Commission has announced an investment programme worth over €10 billion for low-carbon technologies in several sectors to boost their global competitiveness. The Commission aims to launch the first call for proposals under the Innovation Fund already in 2020, followed by regular calls until 2030.

The European Commission has also released €750 million of funding for key European energy infrastructure projects with an aim to ensure secure, affordable and sustainable energy, which has been one of the top priorities. This will also help in better integration of renewable energy, reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2030. It is a matter of pride that India is one of the countries with the largest production of energy from renewable sources and achieving Clean Energy objectives quite actively.

On the aspect of environmental safety, CENELEC has adopted an IEC-made standard, dedicated to providing guidance on the technical documentation for the assessment of electrical and electronic products (EEE) with respect to the restriction of hazardous substances. CEN CENLEC is also working on addressing the need for accessibility for persons with disabilities. A new standard EN 17161:2019 ‘Design for All – Accessibility” is published by CEN in this regard. This is an important area and in India, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (Meity) along with Ministry of Social Welfare and Justice working actively to achieve the objectives of Accessible India and SESEI is working with them addressing the same issue of Inclusion of People with Disabilities through Information and Communication Technology.

Apart from the important news we have also provided details of the white papers released by our project partners and the important events and seminars that they will be organizing shortly.

We invite you to read our newly designed newsletter and look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions to further improvise it. Happy Reading once again.