India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) signed an “Intent of Cooperation on High Performance Computing, Weather Extremes & Climate Modeling and Quantum Technologies” on November 21, 2022. The agreement was signed at a virtual ceremony held simultaneously in New Delhi and Brussels, according to the European Commission announcement.
MeitY Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma and DG CONNECT Director General Roberto Viola were the signatories. The agreement covered collaboration on HPC applications using Indian and European supercomputers in biomolecular medicines, COVID therapeutics, climate change mitigation, natural disaster prediction, and quantum computing.
Roberto Viola said the agreement gave “an exciting perspective for the EU and India to jointly explore the frontiers of Quantum Technologies.” The cooperation built on commitments made during the EU-India Leaders’ meeting on May 8, 2021, and the establishment of the EU-India Trade and Technology Council announced in April 2022.