India and Germany Signed Work Plan 2022

In News

• The 8th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure, led by the Indian Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy was held virtually.

About

• The Working Group has met annually since 2013.
• Objective: It identifies areas of cooperation to support and strengthen quality infrastructure taking into account the needs and requirements of relevant stakeholders from diverse technology areas so as to support bilateral trade.
• The areas identified for collaboration include
  • Mobility,
  • Energy,
  • Circular economy,
  • Smart farming/ agriculture,
  • Medical devices,
  • Digitalisation (artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0 and other new technology areas),
  • Machinery safety,
  • Medical devices and equipment and
  • Market surveillance.

Importance/ Significance of the meeting 

• India underscored the importance of a well-established and robust quality infrastructure which consists of standardization, technical regulations and market surveillance for the success of the government’s initiative to transform India into a global manufacturing hub.
• Germany being an important and trusted partner for India, the Work Plan 2022 would pave the way forward for collaboration towards well functioning and resilient systems of quality infrastructures.
• A publication ‘United in Quality and Safety’ was released providing information about the quality infrastructure in Germany and the European Union.
• Outcome of the Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) study conducted by the German side was also shared.
  • As per the GQII report, India is placed at seventh position on standardization aspect, ninth for accreditation activities and 19th for metrology related activities.
  • India scored 95.6 out of 100 and is ranked at 10th place in the world for overall quality infrastructure environment in the country.
• It automatically facilitates the path of exports, because our products become of higher quality and they become immediately acceptable to foreign countries as important their imports, that is our exports.

India-Germany Relations

• Bilateral Trade: 
  • Germany is India’s largest trading partner in Europe. 
  • Maximum Indian exports to Germany is from the textile sector, followed by chemical products, electrical engineering products, metal and leather goods and foodstuffs.
• Germany has played a key role in reviving the India-EU free trade talks i.e Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).
• Terrorism:
  • Germany supports India led movement for the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
• NSG Membership: 
  • Germany had supported India’s membership bid in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
• G4 Grouping: 
  • India and Germany are members of G-4 along with Brazil and Japan. 
  • The G4 nations support each other’s bids for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.
• Science and Technology: 
  • Germany is India’s second most important research partner worldwide, after the United States.
  • This is reflected in a large number of joint Indo-German scientific publications.
  • There are more than 1000 Indian postgraduate students in Germany.
  • India constitutes the second-largest group of foreign PhD students after the Chinese.

Source: FE