Paris: France and India intend to make digital technology a transformative factor in their societies, to foster economic growth, sustainable development and secure enhanced internet access which is essential to bridge the digital divide.
France and India thus advocate a vision of digital technologies that empower citizens, reduces inequalities, and promotes sustainable development.
International security and diplomatic effort
France and India affirm their commitment to open, reliable, secure, stable and peaceful cyberspace. International law, and in particular the Charter of the United Nations, is applicable and is essential to maintaining peace and stability and promoting an open, secure, peaceful and accessible Digital environment. They reaffirm the importance of promoting and implementing voluntary norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace as well as confidence and capacity-building measures developed within the framework of the United Nations. This ensemble is the foundation of peace and security in cyberspace.
France and India recognize the shared responsibility of a wide variety of actors, in their respective roles, to improve trust, security and stability in cyberspace. They call for the strengthening of the multi-stakeholder approach to ensure an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful Digital environment and stress that this requires joint efforts by governments, industry, academia, and civil society.
Governance, sovereignty, and technological regulation
France and India intend to work for the promotion of an inclusive and transparent, open Digital environment by preserving a multi-stakeholder and multilateral approach to the Internet that respects the interests of all stakeholders including States.
France and India recognise that the rapid development of digital technology and its use must be accompanied by a cooperative, coherent, determined and resolute action by the international community, aimed at guaranteeing the sovereignty of States over the Digital Infrastructure located within the territory of the States as well as the protection of online human rights and freedom of expression.
Cooperation in the field of cybersecurity
France and India recognize the importance of the pursuit and the deepening of the cyber dialogue whose third edition was held in Paris on June 20th, 2019, and welcomed the joint statement adopted at its end.
In this regard, they wish to strengthen their coordination in support of ongoing discussions in various multilateral fora dedicated to the discussion on the application of international law and the implementation of the norms for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace adopted in previous UN GGE reports.
India and France also affirm their willingness to reinforce their cooperation, notably through the sharing of information between their cybersecurity agencies, in order to prevent malicious activities, undertake immediate corrective response, mitigate their potential impact and identify their causes.
Recognizing the need to strengthen the security of digital processes, products and services, France and India intend to share information on the legal and regulatory framework and best practices, including on the protection of Economic Information Infrastructure impacting National security, and on testing and certification of Digital products. In this context, France and India intend to work together on the risks associated with the deployment of 5G technologies and the technical solutions adopted to deal with them.
France and India further recognize the need to address issue arising from the proliferation of malicious tools and practices in cyberspace, notably by actively participating in relevant discussions under the Wassenaar Arrangement, to which both are parties. Towards this, France and India intend to share their respective legal and regulatory frameworks, particularly with regard to the protection of Economic Information infrastructure.
France and India highlight the importance of close cooperation between all countries to address cross-cutting threats to cybersecurity, particularly in Economic Information Infrastructure impacting national security.
Cooperation in the area of fight against cybercrime
France and India recognize that cybercrime is a transnational crime that requires enhanced international cooperation to effectively bring cybercriminals to justice. As such, they plan to strengthen their cooperation in this area, with a particular view to facilitating sharing of information, evidence collection, the identification of offenders, particularly malware developers, hosters / hosting platform providers or broadcasters. They also express their concerns regarding the security of electronic means of payment and confirm their commitment to the protection of consumers against online financial frauds including ATM cashouts. Finally, they plan to discuss the prevention of cybercrime with Service Providers, Social Media Companies to seek information-sharing arrangements.
Cooperation on digital governance
Challenges of regulation
France and India wish to strengthen their coordination in supporting the development of a legitimate, fair and balanced approach to secure Digital sector at the international level. France and India also recognize the need to develop the necessary framework to ensure that technologies remain protective of public goods, data sovereignty and fundamental freedoms.
Regulation of artificial intelligence
France and India welcome the potential offered by the development of Artificial intelligence, particularly in the field of sustainable development, e-governance, autonomous transportation, smart cities, cybersecurity, health, education and agriculture.
France and India recognized the need for developing and implementing AI policies/programs in the context of citizen-centric services, data sovereignty from legal, regulatory and cybersecurity perspectives. France and India are committed to fostering research and development in AI by sharing expertise and best practices.
France and India reaffirm the importance of building an international, legal and ethical corpus to ensure the rapid development of artificial intelligence in the service of humankind, in accordance with international law. They affirm their commitment to working in this direction in the various multilateral fora (G7, G20, UN) and participating in the International Panel on Artificial Intelligence (IPAI).
Fight against terrorism, violent extremist and hateful content online
France and India reaffirm the responsibility and accountability of Social Media platforms in the moderation of terrorist and violent extremist content as well as illegal hate speech online and recall their support for the principles set out in the Christchurch Call.
Prevention of manipulation of information
France and India reiterated their commitment to preventing the manipulation of information, spreading fake news and the importance of online freedom of expression. They highlight the risks that can be raised by the circulation of manipulated information fake news and profiling of personal data. France and India call for international exchange on this threat, particularly on the development of a framework to regulate social media platform.
Protection of personal information
France and India wish to develop an innovative Digital ecosystem that is secure and respectful of users' data protection. In the context of the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and India's objective to put in place adequate regulation in this area, both parties recognize that the convergence of data protection frameworks of Europe and India would facilitate the flow of information and data.
Reduction of the digital divide
Considering the importance and the role of technology in the lives of citizens, France and India intend to promote digital inclusion, to bridge the digital divide and promote digital literacy, notably by exchanging information on their national policies and good practices in this regard.
Indo-French digital partnership
The Ministry of the Economy and Finance of France and the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) of India will be nodal points to coordinate the implementation of this Indo-French digital partnership through an appropriate mechanism.
To intensify the exchange, both sides intend to hold regular consultations on "Indo-France Digital Partnership" by physical meetings and video conferences.
The organizations under this Roadmap will interact and coordinate, as appropriate, with other commitments between entities in France and India.
1.1. Economic exchanges
Business and innovation
France and India want to foster business cooperation in the digital sector by offering a wider scope to work in their respective markets. Also, French and Indian digital companies will jointly work towards furthering the scope of market opportunity to a new level and create greater bonds between their thriving tech ecosystems.
France and India already share strong economic exchanges in the digital sector - such as bilateral investments made by several French companies that have participated in the digital outreach of India as well as Indian firms that are setting up offices in France.
France and India underline the importance of rapid convergence of start-up ecosystems in both countries, welcoming initiatives that allow entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and share projects, including French Digital companies in India and Indian Digital companies in France, which have generated significant employment. Illustrative examples are:
- the former French Tech Tickets initiative, which enabled 13 Indian start-ups to follow an incubation-acceleration programme in France;
- the recently launched French Tech Bangalore India Community to create greater exchanges between our two tech ecosystems;
- a brand new French Tech Visa that fast tracks the process for Indian employees, founders and investors to join the French tech ecosystem and create new bridges between France and India;
- the French Tech Community Bangalore India and MeitY Startup Hub as a bridge of cooperation between the tech ecosystem in France and India.
1.2. Research, training and education
Supercomputing, quantum computing
France and India underline the fact that high-performance computing is a critical part of their bilateral cooperation in the digital field. They appreciate the progress made in their cooperation within the framework of the National Supercomputing Mission, which has enabled the joint development of high-performance calculation tools.
Both sides appreciate the launch of an Indo-French pilot project dedicated to using high-performance computing for water flow simulation in the Mahanadi river basin.
France and India affirm their wish to further expand and deepen this cooperation, in three main areas:
- High-performance computing applied to artificial intelligence;
- Quantum calculation, in this respect they appreciate the creation of an Indo-French Center of Excellence in Quantum Calculation in Pune;
- Exascale calculation.
Both parties further agree to evolve programs and methodologies for participation in emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, smart manufacturing and automotive electronic components.
Artificial intelligence initiative
Hoping to take advantage of the excellence of their respective courses in computer Science and their schools in mathematics, France and India wish to develop an Indo-French research and innovation programme dedicated to artificial intelligence.
A consortium, bringing together academic institutions, ministries and reference companies, will mobilize all the potential in artificial intelligence of France and India around projects in the fields of health, climate, and transport, agriculture, disaster response, smart cities, etc.
As part of this consortium, both parties will work towards mobilizing € 2 million annually to fund basic and applied research projects, scholarships for training and research, exchange of experts and research projects, and awareness-raising measures.
This consortium will meet annually as part of the Knowledge Summit, with its first meeting to be held in Lyon in October 2019.