As part of the first Ministerial meeting of India-European Union Trade and Technology Council (TTC), a Stakeholders Event for Working Groups 1 & 2 was co-chaired by Sh. Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution is one of the co-chairs along with Dr. S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister (EAM) and Sh. Rajeev Chandrashekar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) on the Indian side and  Ms. Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of European Commission, and Mr. Theirry Breton, European Commissioner, on the EU side.

The event was attended by 18 stakeholders, from various business sectors both India and EU presented their views and suggestions. From the Indian side, there were five stakeholders who represented the digital and technology sector (Working Group 1) while three represented clean and green energy technologies (Working Group 2).

The discussions included issues on digital technologies, innovations and disruptions; interoperability for cross border merchant payments; re-globalisation; enabling harmonised standards, regulations and policies to enhance digital trade and investment between India and the EU; digital transformation to scale, need to reskill and improve talent; certifications enabling new innovations and technologies; engagements on production of green hydrogen; battery systems and recycling; scaling up charging systems for better access; waste and water management, etc.

Sh. Piyush Goyal, in his address and subsequent interventions, underscored the importance of new digital technologies and their transformations helping to reskill and upskill existing talents. The Minister informed that mutual recognition of degrees/courses would enable joint skill development on both sides. He also suggested that in order to have deeper understanding based on mutual sensitivities, working groups need to engage periodically and identify separate tracks for skilling and talent, semiconductor ecosystem etc. to move towards clear and identifiable deliverables.

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Mutual recognition of qualifications to enable joint skill development and regulatory alignment for digital and green technology trade. Stakeholder consultations recommended enabling harmonised standards and regulations, improving interoperability for cross-border merchant payments, and establishing certification mechanisms to support innovation and market access for digital and clean technologies, while advocating mutual recognition of degrees and courses and periodic, task oriented working group engagement to produce identifiable deliverables on skilling and semiconductor ecosystem coordination.