India and France have committed to further deepening their cooperation in areas such as digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity, start-up, artificial intelligence (AI), supercomputing, 5G/6G and digital skills development.
According to the India-France joint statement after the delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, the two countries have recognised the rapid advancement and transformation in digital technologies and have agreed to harness their respective strengths and philosophical convergence in their approaches to digitalisation.
India and France, in line with the Indo-French Road map on cybersecurity and digital technology, have reaffirmed their commitment to join forces of their cybersecurity agencies and related ecosystem partners in promoting a peaceful, secure and open cyberspace.
As per the India-France bilateral document “Horizon 2047: 25th Anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership, Towards A Century of India-France Relations”, both countries have emphasised their shared commitment to facilitating bilateral cooperation through enhanced connectivity between their respective start-up and entrepreneurial networks. The two countries have recognised the far-reaching potential of startups in driving innovation, job creation, and economic growth.
Moreover, India and France have also committed to nurturing a thriving ecosystem and building collaborations that empower citizens and ensure their full participation in the digital century. To this end, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) International Payments Limited (NIPL) and France’s Lyra Collect executed an agreement to implement unified payment interface (UPI) in France and Europe. The payment mechanism is in its last phase of production and will go live by September 2023 with the Eiffel Tower, Paris as the first merchant in France to accept UPI.
With a shared belief in the power of the digital public infrastructure (DPI) approach for the development of open, free, democratic and inclusive digital economies and digital societies, India and France have advanced multi-stakeholder exchanges through the India-France Structures (InFrastructures) and India France Innovation in Information Technology (InFinity) platforms. The DPI approach leverages technology, markets and governance to empower citizens, catalyse economic and social transformation, improve public service delivery and promote market competitiveness for sovereign and sustainable digital solutions, also contributing towards achieving sustainable development goals.
Further, the joint statement said that both countries reaffirmed the growing strategic importance of cyberspace in bilateral relationships and underscored the role of bilateral cyber dialogue in deepening cyber cooperation. They appreciated each other’s views on the UN cyber processes that are in progress in the first and third committees and committed to working closely together on matters of mutual interest.
