India and Germany on Wednesday signed a work plan for cooperation to strengthen quality infrastructure, reduce technical barriers to trade, enhance product safety and strengthen consumer protection.
The work plan 2022 was signed during the virtually held 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.
Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh and Deniela Bronstrup, Director General, Digital and Innovation Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) were present in the meeting.
"A Work Plan for the Year 2022 was agreed upon and signed by both sides...," an official statement said.
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.
Speaking in the meeting, India's consumer affairs secretary underscored the importance of a well-established and robust quality infrastructure which consists of standardisation, technical regulations and market surveillance for the success of the government's initiative to transform India into a global manufacturing hub.
Stating that Germany is an important and trusted partner for India, the secretary expressed hope that the Work Plan 2022 signed virtually during the meeting would pave the way forward for collaboration towards well functioning and resilient systems of quality infrastructures.
He urged involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, such as different ministries, standardisation bodies and industry to learn from each other's approaches on different aspects of quality infrastructure.