India and European Union sign agreement for cooperation in high-performance computing

Tags: National Science and Technology

India and the European Union (EU) have signed an agreement on cooperation in hi-tech areas such as climate modelling and quantum technologies on 21 November 2022. This agreement seeks to implement the provision of the India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) agreement signed during the visit of the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 25 April 2022 at New Delhi.

The agreement named ‘Intent of Cooperation on High Performance Computing (HPC), Weather Extremes and Climate Modelling and Quantum Technologies’ was signed by the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) during a virtual ceremony. The agreement was signed by MeitY secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma and DG CONNECT director general Roberto Viola.

The agreement aims to facilitate collaboration on high performance computing applications using Indian and European supercomputers in areas such as bio-molecular medicines, Covid-19 therapeutics, mitigating climate change, predicting natural disasters and quantum computing.

India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) 

The India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) was established between India and the European Union during the visit of the   European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 25 April 2022 at New Delhi.

The India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) is a strategic mechanism that gives New Delhi access to advanced technologies and allows the two sides to set standards in crucial areas such as 5G and artificial intelligence. 

This is the first such trade and technology council set up by India with any of its partners. 

India is the second country after the United States of America with which the European Union has signed such an agreement.

European Union 

The European Union is a group of 27 European countries. 

The United Kingdom which was the founding member of the European Union has left the organisation.

It was founded on 1 November 1993 

Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium