What happens when Europe’s growing demand for advanced digital talent meets India’s scale, specialisation and expanding innovation capacity? 

In the fifth episode of Tech-à-Tête, host Ashvini Pandey explores how Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are evolving beyond cost and delivery centres into strategic engines for capability-building, innovation and long-term EU–India cooperation. 

He is joined by Shalini Nataraj, Global Head – Employee Experience at A.P. Moller – Maersk, and Dr Abhilasha Gaur, CEO of the IT & ITES Sector Skill Council, nasscom. 

Drawing on enterprise and ecosystem perspectives, the conversation examines how European companies can respond to persistent shortages in AI, data engineering, cybersecurity and software development by building deeper, more strategic partnerships with India’s digital talent ecosystem. 

At the heart of the episode is a central question: can India’s GCC ecosystem become a long-term strategic response to Europe’s digital talent challenge? 

The discussion looks at how India’s talent pool, industry-led skilling ecosystem and increasingly verifiable digital credentials are helping European employers build confidence in the depth, readiness and diversity of the workforce. It also explores what it takes to move beyond simply relocating work: creating teams that can co-develop solutions, build technologies at speed and connect more closely with European business needs and customers. 

Against the backdrop of the EU-India FTA and the European Legal Gateway Office, the episode reflects on how stronger policy frameworks could enable deeper investment, smoother talent mobility and more trusted recognition of digital skills between the two economies. 

Ultimately, the conversation asks what the next generation of GCC talent will need to look like: not only technically strong, but also equipped to lead across functions, cultures and markets. 

If you would like to learn more about the EU-India Digital Policy Dialogue and our work on digital cooperation, we warmly invite you to contact us via the email address provided below. 

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In this episode of Tech-à-Tête, host Akriti Bopanna explores a question central to the next phase of EU-India digital cooperation: how can big political commitments become real investments on the ground?

Joined by Stefania Benaglia, Foreign Policy Expert and rapporteur of the 2025 CEPS Task Force Report on the Global Gateway, the conversation unpacks the EU’s Global Gateway strategy and what it means for India’s digital future.

From the Blue-Raman subsea cable and high-performance computing to semiconductors, 6G, digital public infrastructure and AI, this episode looks at where EU-India digital cooperation is already taking shape — and where ambition still needs to translate into delivery.

The discussion also examines the relationship between the EU-India Trade and Technology Council and the Global Gateway: one provides the political direction, the other can help mobilise the capital, partnerships and projects needed to make it real.

A key theme running through the episode is the role of the private sector. If the EU and India want to build resilient digital infrastructure, diversify technology partnerships and move beyond dialogue, businesses, SMEs, startups and civil society actors cannot remain on the sidelines.

As the EU and India look towards 2030, this conversation asks what it will take to turn digital cooperation from a policy promise into a strategic partnership with tangible outcomes.

If you would like to learn more about the EU-India Digital Policy Dialogue and our work on digital cooperation, we warmly invite you to contact us via the email address provided below.

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In this episode of Tech-à-Tête, host Tanea Bandyopadhyay explores one of the most important questions in the future of digital public infrastructure: can digital identity systems work across borders?

Joined by Tanusree Deb Barma, Deputy Director General, Technology Division, at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and Steve Pannifer, Senior Vice President at FIME, the conversation takes a closer look at the possibilities and challenges of interoperability between India’s Aadhaar ecosystem and the European Digital Identity Wallet.

From verifiable credentials and trust frameworks to data protection, levels of assurance, and real-world use cases in education, tourism, financial services, and business, this episode unpacks what it will take to make digital identity portable, secure, and useful across jurisdictions.

As the EU and India deepen their digital cooperation, the discussion highlights how interoperable identity systems could support smoother mobility, stronger trust, and more efficient cross-border exchange for individuals, institutions, and businesses alike.

The EU–India Digital Policy Dialogue’s digital identity interoperability study is currently ongoing. If you would like to learn more or engage with this work, we warmly invite you to contact us via the email address provided below.

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In Episode 2 of Tech-à-Tête, hosted by Tanea Bandyopadhyay, we move beyond policy frameworks to ask a more fundamental question: what does it actually take to build AI that is safe, sovereign, and scalable?

Titled “The Infrastructure Behind Trustworthy AI: What the EU and India Are Building,” this episode features Aalekh Sharan, Head Agentic AI and Head Public Sector at Sarvam AI and a key contributor to India’s National AI Strategy. Drawing on his experience across both policymaking and real-world deployment, Aalekh unpacks what “trustworthy AI infrastructure” truly means in practice.

The conversation takes listeners inside India’s evolving AI ecosystem; from building full-stack, multilingual models trained on domestic infrastructure to the realities of working with limited compute, talent constraints, and rapidly scaling demand.

Along the way, we tackle some of the biggest questions shaping global AI today:

• What separates having infrastructure from actually using it well?
• Can open, sovereign AI models create a more trusted and equitable ecosystem?
• And where do India and the EU’s approaches to AI infrastructure complement each other, particularly in areas like multilingual and inclusive AI?

From DPI-inspired thinking to the economics of compute and the geopolitics of AI, this episode offers a grounded, practitioner-led perspective on what it really takes to build trustworthy AI.

In this inaugural episode of Tech-à-Tête, we sit down with Amaia Sánchez, Non-Resident Senior Fellow for the Asia Programme at Institut Montaigne, and Shyam Krishnakumar, Co-Founder of The Pranava Institute, to unpack what tech diplomacy really means for the EU–India partnership at a pivotal moment.

With the EU–India Summit scheduled for January 2026, join us as we reflect on where cooperation stands today and what needs to happen next. The discussion dives into key questions:

• Where do the EU’s values-driven approach and India’s interests-led strategy collide — and where do they align?
• How can standards-setting and scale come together to shape global rules?
• And what pathways exist for moving from dialogue to real-world collaboration, in both the short term and beyond?

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