The trade volume between Germany and India has more than doubled in the past 15 years. India is the fourth largest trade partner of Germany in the Asia-Pacific region and Germany is India’s most important trade partner in the EU. The trade relations between both countries are characterized by diversity. Major goods traded include automotive components, electrical equipment, medical devices, and chemicals.
Well-functioning and internationally coherent national quality infrastructures are important in a world of global value chains. Quality infrastructure describes the system, which ensures that user quality expectations, and regulatory requirements are met. It is made up of all the public and private institutions required to establish and implement voluntary standards and technical regulations, conformity assessment and accreditation, as well as market surveillance and metrology.
Diverging standards, and multiple testing and certification requirements impose costs on companies and consumers while often doing little to improve the quality of products. The Indo-German cooperation on quality infrastructure reduces time, costs and business uncertainty for firms participating in global markets and ensures sustainable economic trade and development.
The Result: Indian and German partners from government and industry jointly address technical market access issues faced by the industry and thereby improve business conditions and bilateral trade. The bilateral exchange on standards and regulations strengthens product safety and consumer protection, for example through cooperation on machinery safety and market surveillance. Indian and German experts promote emerging technologies such as electric mobility, Industry 4.0, and data protection through cooperation on enabling standards.
The Global Project Quality Infrastructure (GPQI) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) facilitates political and technical dialogues with partner countries such as Brazil, China, India and Mexico. The project follows a demand-driven approach and puts high emphasis on active stakeholder engagement in the development of solutions. Cooperation topics are proposed by industry associations, companies, technical organisations, and government authorities from Germany and its partner countries. This ensures a high relevance of the topics, which are taken up by the bilateral political dialogues to jointly develop solutions.
Only 20 percent of India’s 465 million workers are covered under its existing health and safety legal framework. These figures demonstrate why improving machinery and worker safety is important in India.
India sees quality as key for sustainable economic growth and its transformation to a global manufacturing hub. Adopting international standards and taking leadership positions in priority areas of international standardisation has become an important focus.
The study "Automotive and Component Trade with India" gives an overview of the regulatory landscape in the automotive sector in India. For example: How are emissions standards developed in India? How does the homologation process work in India? Based on interviews with industry representatives, it informs about challenges regarding technical market access in India. The study provides recommendations on how to address these challenges.
The rapid spread of networked products and devices – or Internet of Things (IoT) devices – puts cybersecurity at the centre of attention across sectors. In Smart Cities, Smart Homes, and Smart Manufacturing, or Industry 4.0, IoT devices need to be protected against intentional perpetrators as well as from unintended use.
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