European standards bodies enjoy high international recognition for their technological expertise and long experience in inclusive standard setting, and many global ICT standards are either based upon or strongly influenced by European standards (e.g. GSM, LTE, DVB1). This makes Europe an interesting and influential international cooperation partner. The EU, through its newly established Partnership Instrument, has decided to foster its cooperation with India on ICT standardisation issues. The project aims at supporting India to successfully participate from an early stage in international ICT standardisation efforts, thereby avoiding India-specific standards, and improving and reinforcing the market perspectives for the EU ICT sector in an area where the EU-India Broad BasedTrade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) negotiations can bring about only limited benefits.

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The specific objectives of this inception phase and of this assignment, funded under the Partnership Instrument (PI) Annual Action Programme (AAP) 2014 were focused on identification of the most promising cooperation field(s) on ICT-related standardisation issues and design of the corresponding pilot initiatives that shall be implemented during the follow-up implementation phase (at least one pilot initiative each shall be identified and designed, focusing on EU-India cooperation and dialogue on a specific set(s) of ICT standards and on (a) specific area(s) for statistical cooperation in implementation of SDMX standards) and preparing the ground for the implementation phase of the follow-up action, ensuring the buy-in of all relevant stakeholders, identifying the most suitable implementation arrangements, preparing the needed communication infrastructure and contact databases, as well as ensuring a smooth hand-over and transition to the implementation of the full-fledged project and of the identified pilot initiatives.

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The services provided on this assignment consisted of the discussion and validation with all the relevant stakeholders of the topics to be  prioritised for the future cooperation in the form of pilot projects to be covered by the follow-up funding (AAP 2016), preparation work for the follow-up implementation phase, in close cooperation with relevantstakeholders, and establishment of an adequate communications infrastructure for continued use during the full-fledged implementation phase.

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EU India Collaboration on ICT for Smart Cities – IIITH CoE Film

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y77wB2zu890

The objective was to produce a micro-documentary to highlight the journey of the EU-India Cooperation Project on ICT Standardization, Policy and Legislation in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence of IIIT-Hyderabad bringing into focus EU’s support in establishing the CoE at the institution and the propagation of the extensive study of IoT, with the need to set up universal standards in India for Smart Cities.

The concept for the film was developed in collaboration with the EUD delegation, EUD press team, local communications agency Avian WE and DM’s expert team.

Participants in the documentary were among others, professors from the CoE, international key experts, EUD and DM’s local project coordinator.

Given that IIIT-Hyderabad has emerged as a good success story from the EU India collaboration over the years, facilitated by the project team, the creation of a visibility film showcasing the case study of IIIT Hyderabad creates evidence that can be shared in high level forums. The film also fulfils the core objective of FPI projects which is to showcase and create a framework for cooperation between EU and India (Enhanced cooperation with Indian academic Centres of Excellence on ICT standardisation-related efforts, with organisations rolling-out these technologies and solutions in various implementing sectors (e.g. eHealth, precision agriculture, smart cities, industry 4.0, etc.).).  

Source: The EU delegation to India YouTube channel.