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About Us

Our Overall Project Objective

The overall objective of the EU-funded efforts on “India-EU Cooperation on ICT-Related Standardisation, Policy and Legislation” (2015 – 2023) is to promote closer alignment between India and Europe with regard to the production and use of ICT standards and to harmonise the exchange of statistical data, thereby facilitating trade, increasing interoperability and the ease of doing business for companies, and adding additional weight to European and Indian ICT standardisation efforts at the global level.

Our Main Cooperation Partners

The main cooperation partners on the Indian side are the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) and its members, and the Central Statistics Office of India (CSO); on the European side European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and Eurostat. Other relevant Indian partners are Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCoE), which provides links to relevant academic centres, and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing India’s GSM telecom operators and telecom network vendors (including all European players active in India), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (under which the CSO is organized).

Our Project Activities

Our project activities include:

ICT Related Activities

  • provision of technical assistance in the identified priority fields 5G, NFV/SDN, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and Security as a cross-cutting topic (including for example preparation of ad hoc position papers and analyses/studies on specific standardisation aspects, when required);
  • organisation of EU-India dialogues and meetings on specific topics (e.g. expert workshops, conferences, side events to be organised for EU-India joint ICT working groups, if required);
  • supporting European standardisation experts to attend and give presentations at events (meetings, workshops, conferences, training) organised by the project in India;
  • organisation of workshops, training, exchanges / study visits involving staff from TSDSI and other Indian stakeholders;
  • supporting the participation of Indian experts from the standards body TSDSI, academia/research, and public administration in relevant trainings abroad (e.g. summer schools) or in expert meetings under international standardization efforts (such as the ETSI-supported global OneM2M and 3GPP initiatives, or global consensus-building meetings and events on 5G organised by Horizon 2020 projects);
  • developing joint initiatives (e.g. co-hosted sessions of application developments based on common standards/ standards platforms such as “hackathons”).

Statistics (SDMX) Related Activities

  • review and identification of the Indian statistical system i.e. actors involved in producing data, current database environment, assessment of efficiency gains from SDMX implementation;
  • building the capacity of CSO in converting national statistical tables and data flows for exchange into the SDMX concept scheme and artefacts;
  • organisation of workshops, training, exchanges / study visits involving staff from CSO and other Indian stakeholders;
  • support in accessing, installing and implementing software/tools selected for SDMX implementation;
  • the use SDMX standards and guidelines to exchange quarterly national accounts data flows (and associated metadata) selected for the pilot project between CSO and selected agencies;
  • prepare CSO to apply SDMX to other statistical domains after the end of this project.
  • testing of the real data transmission – from the federal/regional offices to the headquarters and from the headquarters to international organizations – and setting up structures for a regular data transmission;
  • evaluation of the effectiveness of cooperation in the pilot area of national accounts;
  • supporting the participation of CSO selected staff in relevant international events (e.g. SDMX Global Conference, SDMX Expert Group meeting, etc.).

 


Detailed Project Background

Supported by the EU Partnership Instrument, the project also supports the EU-India Strategic Partnership, including the EU-India Joint Action Plan and EU-India Research and Innovation Partnership, endorsed by the 2012 EU-India Summit. It directly answers to the agreement of leaders in the 2016 EU-India Summit and the 2017 India-EU Summit to enhance cooperation on ICT standardisation. It connects with EU-India cooperation on ICT matters, as it fits in with the mandate of the EU-India joint ICT Working Group, and its work will also be of relevance for the EU-India Cyber Security Consultations. In the field of statistics, the action is in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on statistical cooperation signed on 10 February 2012 between Eurostat and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of India.

The project is in the mutual interest and benefit of the EU and India. For the EU, the main benefit lays in the avoidance of India-specific ICT standards, which could result in new market access barriers (e.g. additional testing, certification and labelling requirements), leading to substantial additional delays, costs and administrative burden for European ICT companies, many of which have an active presence in India, ultimately also affecting European investment in the sector in India. India has so far little experience in global ICT standardisation and can benefit from exchanges of best practices, participation in global standardisation meetings and/or the development of joint projects, (e.g. the development of applications based on common standards). It also places great emphasis on the development of its – so far small – telecoms and electronics manufacturing sector, including the attraction of foreign investment under the “Make in India” government initiative. For this to be successful, an early alignment with and active participation in related international standardisation efforts can be vital, as India’s home market on its own cannot guarantee the economies of scale needed to be competitive and included in today’s export-driven global supply chain production systems.

The project therefore aims at supporting India to successfully participate, from an early stage, in international ICT standardisation efforts, thereby preventing the creation of India-specific standards, and improving market perspectives for the ICT sector in an area where the EU-India Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) negotiations might bring about only limited benefits.

This above reflects the nature of the EU Partnership Instrument (PI), adopted on 11 March 2014. Through this instrument, the European Union aims at reinforcing the bilateral, regional or multilateral engagement with its strategic partners and to promote collective approaches and responses to issues of global concern. The PI is therefore an important instrument that can further strengthen the EU-India Strategic Partnership by supporting concrete activities and policy dialogues in areas of mutual interest, such as ICT. More information on other projects funded under the PI can be obtained from the Delegation of the European Union to India.

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