INDIA AND GERMANY

Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh visited Germany from 10 April 2013 to 12 April 2013 for participating in second round of Inter Governmental Consultations with Germany. He was accompanied by delegation including Ministers and senior officials.

During his visit, certain documents were signed. These documents are as follows:

Joint Declaration of Intent regarding promotion of German as a foreign language in India

• The Joint Declaration of Intent regarding promotion of German as a foreign language in India was signed between M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Minister for Human Resource Development from India and Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State in the German Foreign Office.
• Under the Joint Declaration, India would cooperate in introducing B.Ed programmes for German language.
• Also scholarships would be awarded for Masters degree programs and for short stays in Germany with the goal of improving mutual trust and intercultural relations.Intergovernmental MoU between India & Germany on Cooperation in the field of Higher Education
• This MoU was signed between M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Minister for Human Resource Development from India and Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research from Germany.
• This MoU intends to facilitate people-to-people exchanges. This includes students, academics, and project collaborators. Joint Declaration of Intent on Indo-German cooperation in the area of Civil Security Research
• This Joint Declaration was signed between Minister for Science & Technology, Jaipal Reddy from India and Federal Minister of Education and Research, Johanna Wanka from Germany.
• The Indo-German research cooperation in this new area intends to fund 5 pilot projects in 2013 with the identified priorities being natural disaster management, biological risk situations, urban security, protection & rescue of people and social aspects of civil security research.
• Joint Declaration for the bilateral “Kooperations Program” of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection and the National Seeds Association of India and the German Association of Plant Breeders.This was signed between Ambassador of India and Gerd Muller, Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Germany.

This joint declaration aims at strengthening cooperation in:

• Plant variety protection
• Conservation of plant genetic resources
• Cooperation between Indian and German agricultural research institutions and seed companies Joint Declaration of Intent on the Establishment of an Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure for Cooperation in Standardisation, Conformity Assessment and Product Safety
• This was signed between Foreign Secretary of India and Anne Ruth Herkes, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology of Germany.
• This aims to strengthen bilateral cooperation in standardization, conformity assessment and product safety through advancing bilateral economic and technical cooperation, intensifying dialogue and promoting coordinated activities in international organizations.
• It also provides for establishing and Indo-German Working Group Quality Infrastructure. Joint Declaration of Intent on Indo-German Development Cooperation regarding the Establishment of Green Energy Corridors
• This was signed between Farooq Abdullah, Minister for New and Renewable Energy, India and Gudrun Kopp, Parliamentary State Secretary, Germany.
• This joint declaration aims at fostering increased use of renewable energy in India through technical and fanatical cooperation by way of integrating additional renewable energy generation capacity with the national grid.
• The Technical cooperation would be implemented through the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and KfW intends to provide concessional loans of up to Euro one billion over the next six years.

List of documents signed on the sidelines of 2nd round of India-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations

• MoU between Solar Energy Centre and Fraunhofer Institute for cooperation and exchanges in various areas including solar photovoltaic; solar thermals systems; hydrogen and fuel cells.
• Programme of Cooperation between Dept. of Biotechnology of India and Helmholtz Association in the area of development of future natural drugs.
• Supplementary MoU on Research Framework of the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability at IIT, Madras under the National Climate Action Plan.
• MoU between Deutsche Bahn and Indian Railways for cooperation in the field of freight, passenger operations, infrastructure building and management; development of modern competitive railway organization.
• MoU between DB Systel and Centre for Railway Information Systems for cooperation in the field of information systems related to railways.
• MOU between Hof University of Applied Sciences & Integrated Association of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises of India (SPV formed by Faridabad Small Industries Association) to develop specialized vocational training course.
• MOU between Manipal University, Manipal, India & Bavarian Universities Consortium represented by Hof University of Applied Sciences of Germany to establish the Indo-Bavarian Integrated Bachelors and Masters Programme in August 2013.
• MoU between Infosys Ltd and Bertelsmann Stiftung to support Vocational Education and Training in India.
• MOU between PSG Institute of Advanced Studies & Professional Training Centres of the Bavarian Employers Association (BFZ).
• Contract agreement between Cairn India and TUV Rheinland to set up a state-of-the-art vocational education training facility in Rajasthan.