PIB | 08 Jul, 2022
The
Department of Consumer Affairs and German Federal Ministry for Economic
Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) organised two days event on Quality
Infrastructure (QI) which started here today. On the first day, experts
discussed QI and emerging topics such as circular economy. The event concluded on Friday, 8th July.
During
his address, the Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Rohit
Kumar Singh, underlined the importance of the Indo-German partnership,
which was emphasised with the visit of Hon’ble Prime Minister arendra Modi to the G7 meeting.
He also underscored the importance of
consumer protection through standards and certification processes. Joint
efforts are necessary to improve product quality and safety, such as
through the various technical exchanges during the Indo-German QI-Days.
The Secretary welcomed the focus on emerging topics such as artificial
intelligence, smart farming and circular economy, which are priorities
for the Indian government. He urged involvement of all relevant
stakeholders in the discussions on the various aspects of QI, to
contribute to the success and the tangible results of this cooperation.
Dr
Ole Janssen, Deputy Director General for Innovation and Technology
Policy at BWMK, the co-chair from the German delegation, in his address,
highlighted the importance of the bilateral cooperation on quality
infrastructure and noted that the Indo-German QI-Days provided an
important platform for dialogues to share information and expertise on
issues of mutual interest to support bilateral trade and economic
activities.
Janssen emphasised that the delegation visit to India has
underlined the strategic partnership between Germany and India for
innovation, and digital and green transformation.
The
visit of the delegation from the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) to India underlines the importance of
Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure for trade, product
safety and consumer protection and provides an excellent opportunity to
the experts from both the sides to improve the mutual understanding of
the German and Indian approaches to quality infrastructure (QI).
Quality
infrastructure is a system that covers everything needed to ensure
safe, high-quality products and services: from standardisation,
conformity assessment (testing, inspection and certification) and
accreditation to metrology and market surveillance.
These elements form
the system and processes that protect people, health and the
environment. Quality infrastructure plays a vital role for business,
innovation and trade – both nationally and across borders.
It
is therefore important for a country to have a well-designed and
coherent QI system which is also in line with international best
practices to play a vital role in global trade. They reduce time, cost and business uncertainty for companies as well as ensure consumer safety.
The
two-days event will see an expert exchange on market surveillance
wherein both the sides will exchange different aspects for a robust
market surveillance system. In addition, the 1st Indo-German
Forum on Technical Regulation and Conformity Assessment, in which Indian
and German experts will discuss how India and Germany can work together
to improve the ease of doing business as well as the involvement of the
relevant stakeholders in technical regulation.
The strategic dialogue
aims to improve the preparedness of the industry on upcoming regulatory
changes. At the same time, it intends to enhance the effectiveness of
regulations through the exchange on approaches to technical regulation
in Germany and India as well as good regulatory practices.
The 3rd
Indo-German Forum on Standardisation, during which standardisation
bodies will discuss approaches and criteria for emerging topics, such as
Artificial Intelligence, electromobility, circular economy, hydrogen
and smart agriculture.
The forum was established in 2019 and enables
both countries to collaborate on issues of mutual interest that are
relevant for the standard bodies, industry as well as consumers. During a
panel discussion, Indo-German experts will also discuss role of
standardisation roadmaps and integration of research in standard
development processes.
An
expert exchange on Circular Economy, which will discuss the role of QI
in enabling and supporting the ecological transformation of our
economies considering the developments and priorities in QI and at the
national and international policy level.
In the panel discussion,
experts emphasised the role of standards and certification for the
transition to a circular economy across different sectors.