The technology agenda in India’s partnerships with the West has undergone a sea change over the last fifteen years.
Consider, for example, the joint statements from the meetings between President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009 and 2010. Issues like counterterrorism, global security, climate change, and economic cooperation were prominent. In contrast, high-technology cooperation—focused on the single issue of the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement—finds only a cursory mention.
Now compare those statements to the joint fact sheet released during PM Modi’s visit to Washington in September 2024: technology has come out of the shadows and commands the centre stage. Indeed, the fact sheet begins by highlighting concrete actions in wide-ranging technical areas: semiconductors, critical minerals, telecommunications, space, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, to name just a few.
In the same vein, no policy analyst would have imagined fifteen years ago that the readout of a meeting by the two National Security Advisors would go beyond traditional areas such as defence cooperation, intelligence sharing, and volatility in India’s neighbourhood. Today, however, the two NSAs are steering the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which includes ideas for building “innovation bridges” through expositions, hackathons, and pitch sessions, developing joint venture partnerships for semiconductor fabrication and biomanufacturing in India, as well as launching a public-private dialogue on telecommunications and regulations. Beyond the U.S., India, and the European Union launched a joint mechanism to deepen coordination on trusted technologies in February 2023, even as significant breakthroughs on issues such as trade and investment remain elusive.
