NEW DELHI: The first assembly of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on May 16 will finalise an formidable agenda that’s anticipated to incorporate setting requirements for crucial applied sciences and constructing inter-operability between digital techniques, folks aware of the matter mentioned.

India is barely the second nation, after the US, with which the European Union (EU) has a TTC, and the 2 sides agreed to launch the strategic mechanism throughout European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s go to to India in April 2022. Ahead of the TTC assembly in Brussels, three working teams have met over the previous yr to present ultimate form to the agenda for collaboration.

The Indian aspect shall be represented on the upcoming assembly by exterior affairs minister S Jaishankar, commerce minister Piyush Goyal and communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw – a sign of the significance hooked up by New Delhi to the TTC.

Numerous groundwork to determine areas for cooperation below the TTC has been carried out by the three working teams centered on strategic applied sciences, digital governance and digital connectivity; inexperienced and clear vitality applied sciences; and commerce, funding and resilient worth chains.

Though left unspoken, a whole lot of this work has additionally centered on countering challenges from China in areas starting from expertise to commerce, the folks mentioned. Besides the setting of requirements for crucial and rising applied sciences reminiscent of 5G, 6G and synthetic intelligence (AI), the 2 sides have labored on points reminiscent of screening of international direct funding (FDI) to make sure transparency in enterprise operations, they mentioned.

The Indian aspect has taken up inter-operability of the “India Stack”, a set of open APIs and digital public items encompassing identification, knowledge and digital funds, with comparable techniques in Europe. The work on 5G and 6G shall be a chance for the Indian aspect to discover European markets, the folks mentioned.

“We have already made inroads with the United Payments Interface (UPI) in Singapore and France and are branching out into other markets. The India Stack is also part of the G20 agenda and UPI is crucial for remittances,” one of many folks mentioned.

However, the folks acknowledged the Indian aspect has confronted pushback in these efforts from world cost processors reminiscent of Visa and Mastercard, who levy important fees on transactions and concern their income shall be hit with higher acceptance of UPI.

The commerce ministry didn’t reply to an e-mail question on the matter. A second particular person with data of the discussions described the TTC as an essential discussion board of cooperation between “two of the largest open market economies and pluralistic societies” and a results of the joint visions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and von der Leyen.

“TTC is a high-level forum, formed for providing political-level oversight of all aspects of the India-EU relationship and to ensure coordination between different areas of cooperation,” the second particular person mentioned.

Among different issues, the TTC will deal with three essential areas – facilitating ongoing negotiations for a free commerce settlement (FTA) with the EU, making certain a extra strategic EU position within the Indo-Pacific, and selling a world rules-based order on key points reminiscent of local weather motion, clear vitality, sustainable development, digital transformation, the folks mentioned.

The TTC can even promote commerce and investments, together with the partnership in India’s inexperienced hydrogen mission. In this context, the 2 sides are engaged on reconciling and aligning their requirements and definitions for inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing and storage, the folks mentioned.

At the time of the TTC’s formation, the 2 sides agreed to make use of it as a “strategic coordination mechanism” to deal with essential points pertaining to commerce, expertise and safety, the second particular person mentioned.

In this context, India and the EU signed an settlement final November on cooperation in quantum applied sciences and utilizing supercomputers for local weather modelling, predicting pure disasters and bio-molecular medicines.

India is the EU’s tenth largest buying and selling associate, accounting for two.1% of whole commerce in items. The EU is India’s third largest buying and selling associate, accounting for commerce in items value €88 billion in 2021 or just a little greater than 10% of whole Indian commerce. Trade in providers between the 2 sides touched €30.4 billion in 2020.