India, European Commission to set up Trade and Technology Council

The European Commission and India have agreed to set up an EU-India Trade and Technology Council to tackle challenges related to trade, technology, and security. The agreement was signed in New Delhi by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

This will be the EU’s second Trade and Technology Council. The first one was set up with the US in June 2021.  

“Strengthening the EU-India partnership is a key priority for this decade. We will step up cooperation in trade, technology, and security. This is why I’m pleased that Narendra Modi and I will establish a Trade and Technology Council,” Leyen said in a Twitter post. 

Though the Commission didn’t elaborate on how the two will share technologies, it explained in a statement that the Trade and Technology Council will provide the “necessary structure to operationalise political decisions, coordinate technical work, and report to the political level to ensure implementation and follow-up in areas that are important for the sustainable progress of European and Indian economies.” 

Cybersecurity can be a major area for technical collaboration given the increase in cyberattacks both Europe and India have faced due to geopolitical tensions and growing digital adoption.  

India is one of the leading providers of IT services to several European countries.  

Last week, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also visited India and spoke about job opportunities for Indians in the UK. During his visit, Indian IT company Tech Mahindra also announced that it will generate 1,000 new jobs in the UK in data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

Homegrown fitness company Goqii too announced that it will invest up to GBP 10 million in the UK over the next five years and create over 100 jobs.  

Among member nations of the European Union, Finland signed a joint declaration with India on April 19 to set up an Indo-Finnish Virtual Network Centre, QNxT, on Quantum Computing.  

The centre will enable training, education, testing, and R&D in quantum computing. It will also find use cases to tackle financial fraud and speed up drug discovery.