Seventh Meeting of Indo-German Working Group

Participants of the 7th Annual Meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure in New Delhi.

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2020-02-05 short info

For reducing trade barriers and higher product safety:

Indo-German Working Group on quality infrastructure continues successful cooperation.

Contact
Florian Spiteller

The seventh annual meeting of the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure took place on 16th and 17th January 2020 in New Delhi with around 80 participants. Germany and India established the Working Group in 2013 to strengthen their economic and technical cooperation, reduce technical barriers to trade, and increase product safety. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Indian Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (MoCAF&PD) in collaboration with other ministries are working closely together on standardisation, accreditation and conformity assessment, metrology, product safety and market surveillance.

Stefan Schnorr und Shri Avinash K. Srivastava shaking hands after signing the work plan.

Stefan Schnorr and Shri Avinash K. Srivastava after signing the work plan.

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This year's annual meeting was attended by a German delegation of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) headed by Director General Stefan Schnorr, representatives from the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE), the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB), and representatives from German companies and industry associations such as VDMA and VDA. The Indian delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as well as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Citations:

Director General Stefan Schnorr of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy:
“Quality infrastructure is the language of international trade. With a growing relevance of technical regulations – such as mandatory standards – our exchange on regulatory approaches and compliance procedures eases doing business and boosts trade. I welcome the signing of our Work Plan 2020. We have agreed to intensify the cooperation on standards, technical regulation, certification, and market surveillance in key economic areas such as machinery safety, automotive, electric mobility and cybersecurity. A mutual understanding of requirements for safe and secure products helps to protect the citizens in both countries. Our Indo-German discussion paper on the cybersecurity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices which we just launched is a good example for our successful cooperation.”

Secretary Avinash K. Srivastava of the Indian Ministry of Consumer Affairs:
“Germany is a trusted and important partner for India. It is encouraging to see the intense technical cooperation that happens in our bilateral Working Group. I am happy to see that we have deepened our cooperation in areas such as cybersecurity, market surveillance, Industry 4.0, and legal metrology. This year we will also put a focus on strengthening the dialogue on technical regulation, exchange on regulations of medical devices, and exploring twinning arrangements at ISO and IEC level.”

Florian Spiteller (DKE) sitting in the midst of the discussion round.

Florian Spiteller (DKE) in the midst of the discussion round.

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Florian Spiteller, DKE Head of External Relations, spoke on the podium several times throughout the forum:

  • During the Indo-German Workshop on the Role of Standards Developing Organisations (SDO), he explained in his presentation the functioning interaction between the market, stakeholders and steering committees with the individual DKE areas based on the DKE structure, because "standardization must have market relevance". In the following discussion, Florian Spiteller emphasized the importance of international standards for the dismantling of technical trade barriers. He also demanded tools such as the Global Relevance Toolbox to be used and promoted more frequently, because those can be helpful with the integration of national particularities in international standards.
  • On behalf of the DKE Standardization Council Industry 4.0 (SCI), Florian Spiteller presented the triangle of Platform Industry 4.0, Labs Network Industry 4.0 (LNI 4.0) and SCI 4.0. This model enables all stakeholders involved to exchange ideas, and India showed great interest in it.
  • Florian Spiteller also represented the DKE at the panel discussion of the Working Group. The fact that a stronger promotion of the Global Relevance Toolbox has been included in the work plan of the Working Group is a success for IEC and for the international standardization. The discussion also revealed a consensus on the essential importance of an exchange between the national and international levels.

The dialogues on Quality Infrastructure take place within the framework of the Global Project Quality Infrastructure (GPQI), within which BMWi engages in political and technical dialogues with strategic trading partners. GIZ – the German Agency for International Cooperation – supports the implementation of the project on behalf of BMWi.