India–EU FTA Promotes Paperless Trade, e-Invoicing, e-Contracts, e-Authentication to Ease Cross-Border Trade
The digital trade chapter of the India–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) establishes a facilitative framework to ensure a secure and trustworthy digital environment for electronic transactions, aimed at strengthening the growth of goods and services trade between India and the EU. It promotes paperless trade, e-invoicing, e-contracts, e-authentication etc., to ease cross-border trade. The chapter also contains provisions to enhance consumer confidence and business trust.
The digital trade chapter also recognizes the importance of regulatory and technical cooperation in integrating Indian startups, including MSMEs, into the growth of digital trade. Provisions on online consumer protection, cyber security, unsolicited electronic messages, and source code build trust among consumers and businesses in electronic transactions.
Further, during 16th India-EU Summit, India and European Commission have signed and exchanged an Administrative Arrangement on Advanced Electronic Signatures and Seals on January 27, 2026.It provides a framework for cooperation on interoperability of electronic signatures, electronic seals, and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, consistent with the laws of India and European Union by promoting the use of secure and trusted electronic signatures and seals in cross-border digital transactions and trade. This also enables the service providers to utilise the market access opportunities created under India-EU FTA.
Government has taken several steps to improve digital infrastructure, compliance platforms and cybersecurity standards. The key initiatives are:
- Aadhaar: Aadhaar is the world’s largest digital identity programme that provides biometric and demographic-based unique digital identity. 143+ crore Aadhaar IDs have been generated so far.
- Unified Payments Interface (UPI):
UPI serves 6.5 crore merchants, and connects 685 banks on one platform, making it the world’s largest digital payment system. UPI powers 81% of India’s digital payments and nearly 49% of global real-time digital payments. UPI is the world’s largest payments platform.
- DigiLocker: DigiLocker has provided anytime access to authentic digital documents from original issuer for the common citizen. More than 65.01 crore users are registered with DigiLocker to avail its services and more than 950+ crore documents issued from 2412 issuers onboarded on the platform.
- Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG), one mobile application for all government services, is operational and offers 2390+ services for individuals.
- The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), designated as the national nodal agency leads incident response and coordination.
- The National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) monitors cyberspace for threats and shares real-time intelligence with stakeholders, while the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (CSK) provides citizen-centric services for botnet cleaning, malware removal and cyber hygiene awareness.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs has established the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) for coordinated action against cybercrimes, and the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) safeguards critical information infrastructure and provides threat intelligence and advisories.
- To enhance preparedness and resilience, CERT-In operates an automated cyber threat intelligence exchange platform, conducts regular cyber security mock drills, and has formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for all Ministries, State Governments and critical sectors.
- Sector-specific mechanisms such as CSIRT-Fin support the financial sector, while capacity building is strengthened through the ISEA programme, regular professional trainings and nationwide awareness initiatives including National Cyber Security Awareness Month, Safer Internet Day, Swachhta Pakhwada and Cyber Jagrookta Diwas.
Government has taken several steps for providing digital skills to the youth and runs programs for skilling/upskilling in the latest technologies. The key initiatives are:
- IndiaAI FutureSkills:
- This pillar under the IndiaAI Mission aimsto develop AI skilled professionals in India by increasing the number of graduates, post-graduate and PhDs in AI domain. Government is providing support to:
-
- 500 PhD fellows
- 5,000 postgraduates
- 8,000 undergraduates
290 fellowships have been awarded till date.
-
- 27 IndiaAI Data and AI Labs have been established in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, in collaboration with NIELIT, to impart foundation-level courses on AI, data and related fields such as Data Annotation, Data Curation, Data Cleaning, Data Science, etc.
- 543 ITIs and Polytechnics across all States/UTs have been approved for setting up additional IndiaAI Data and AI Labs.
- FutureSkills Prime: FutureSkills PRIME program is a collaborative initiative of MeitY and National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) aimed at making India a cutting-edge digital talent nation. Key features are:
- Skilling, reskilling, and upskilling in emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, IoTs, Cyber Security, Blockchain, AR/VR, etc.
- Courses are developed in the consultation with industry to align with actual employment needs.
- Portal can be accessed anytime-anywhere to earn skill certificates in line with their aptitude and aspirations.
- Accessible online at https://futureskillsprime.in/
- Under the programme, so far, more than 26.2 lakh candidates have registered on the portal, out of which there have been 16.65 lakh+ candidates enrolled/trained in various courses.
- National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT):
- NIELIT provides digital literacy courses such as Awareness in Computer Concept (ACC), Course on Computer Concepts (CCC) etc.
- NIELIT has trained 43 lakh+ candidates under various courses, including digital literacy and cyber security awareness.
- Training is delivered through a wide network of 56 NIELIT Centres and 9000+ Accredited Training Partners/Facilitation Centres.
- 10,000+ candidates have applied for NIELIT’s digital literacy courses in the district since April 2024.
This information was submitted by Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Shri Jitin Prasada in Rajya Sabha on 13.02.2026.
****
MSZ