European  standards bodies enjoy high international recognition for their technological  expertise andlong experience in inclusive standard setting, and many  global ICT standards are either based upon orstrongly influenced by  European standards (e.g. GSM, LTE, DVB1). This makes Europe an  interestingand influential international cooperation partner.The  EU, through its newly established Partnership Instrument, has decided to  foster its cooperationwith India on ICT standardisation issues. The  project aims at supporting India to successfully participate from an early  stage ininternational ICT standardisation efforts, thereby avoiding  India-specific standards, and improving andreinforcing the market  perspectives for the EU ICT sector in an area where the EU-India Broad  BasedTrade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) negotiations can bring about  only limited benefits.    

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The specific objectives of this inception phase and of this assignment,  funded under the PartnershipInstrument (PI) Annual Action Programme  (AAP) 2014 were focused on identification of the most promising cooperation  field(s) on ICT-related standardisation issuesand design of the  corresponding pilot initiatives that shall be implemented during the  followupimplementation phase (at least one pilot initiative each shall  be identified and designed,focusing on EU-India cooperation and  dialogue on a specific set(s) of ICT standards, and on aspecific  area(s) for statistical cooperation in implementation of SDMX standards), and  preparing the ground for the implementation phase of the follow-up action,  ensuring the buyinof all relevant stakeholders, identifying the most  suitable implementation arrangements,preparing the needed communication  infrastructure and contact databases, as well as ensuringa smooth  hand-over and transition to the implementation of the full-fledged project  and of theidentified pilot initiatives.    

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The services provided on this assignment consisted of the discussion and  validation with all the relevant stakeholders of the topics to be  prioritisedfor the future cooperation in the form of pilot projects to  be covered by the follow-up funding(AAP 2016), preparation work for the  follow-up implementation phase, in close cooperation with  relevantstakeholders, and establishment of an adequate communications  infrastructure for continued use during the fullfledgedimplementation  phase.