The India–EU FTA digital chapter promotes paperless trade, e-signatures and trust frameworks to boost trade.
The digital trade chapter of the India–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) sets out a facilitative framework to enable secure, trusted and paperless cross-border trade, promoting e-invoicing, e-contracts, e-authentication and allied digital processes to strengthen goods and services trade between India and the European Union.
The chapter aims to build a safe and reliable digital environment for electronic transactions, enhancing consumer confidence and business trust. It underscores regulatory and technical cooperation to integrate Indian startups, including MSMEs, into the expanding digital trade ecosystem. Provisions covering online consumer protection, cybersecurity, unsolicited electronic messages and source code are designed to further reinforce trust in electronic commerce.
At the 16th India–EU Summit, India and the European Commission signed and exchanged an Administrative Arrangement on Advanced Electronic Signatures and Seals on January 27, 2026. The arrangement establishes cooperation on interoperability of electronic signatures, electronic seals and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, in line with Indian and EU laws. It promotes the use of secure and trusted electronic signatures in cross-border digital transactions, enabling service providers to leverage market access opportunities created under the FTA.
Strengthening India’s Digital Backbone
The Government of India has undertaken multiple initiatives to enhance digital infrastructure, compliance platforms and cybersecurity standards:
- Aadhaar: The world’s largest digital identity programme, with over 143 crore Aadhaar IDs issued.
- Unified Payments Interface (UPI): Serving 6.5 crore merchants and connecting 685 banks, UPI accounts for 81% of India’s digital payments and nearly 49% of global real-time digital payments.
- DigiLocker: Over 65.01 crore registered users, with more than 950 crore documents issued by 2,412 onboarded issuers.
- UMANG: A single mobile platform offering 2,390+ government services to citizens.
On cybersecurity, CERT-In leads incident response and coordination, supported by the National Cyber Coordination Centre, Cyber Swachhta Kendra, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre and the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre. Measures include automated threat intelligence exchange, regular mock drills and a Cyber Crisis Management Plan across ministries, states and critical sectors, with sector-specific support such as CSIRT-Fin.
Building Digital Skills at Scale
To expand digital talent, the government is advancing multiple skilling programmes:
- IndiaAI FutureSkills under the IndiaAI Mission supports 500 PhD fellows, 5,000 postgraduates and 8,000 undergraduates in AI, with 290 fellowships awarded so far.
- 27 IndiaAI Data and AI Labs have been set up in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities with NIELIT, while 543 ITIs and polytechnics across states and UTs have been approved for additional labs.
- FutureSkills PRIME, a collaboration between MeitY and NASSCOM, has registered over 26.2 lakh candidates, with 16.65 lakh+ enrolled or trained across emerging technologies.
- NIELIT has trained over 43 lakh candidates through 56 centres and 9,000+ accredited partners, including digital literacy and cybersecurity awareness courses.
The details were shared by Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, in the Rajya Sabha on February 13, 2026, highlighting India’s readiness to leverage digital trade reforms under the India–EU FTA.
Source: PIB
