The story to this point: Earlier this week, India and the United States unveiled a roadmap for enhanced collaboration in high-technology areas, with a deal with addressing regulatory limitations and aligning export controls for smoother commerce and “deeper cooperation” in crucial areas. This was a part of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) introduced by President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi final yr. National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and his American counterpart Jake Sullivan, who visited India this week to arrange the bottom for the Prime Minister’s state go to to the U.S. from June 21, reviewed the progress of the initiative on the second monitor 1.5 dialogue on iCET on Tuesday.

What is iCET?

The Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies is a framework agreed upon by India and the U.S. for cooperation on crucial and rising applied sciences in areas together with synthetic intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors and wi-fi telecommunication. It was launched in January this yr to strengthen their strategic partnership and drive know-how and defence cooperation. Mr. Modi and Mr. Biden first introduced the framework on the sidelines of the Quad assembly in Tokyo in May 2022. “The United States and India affirm that the ways in which technology is designed, developed, governed, and used should be shaped by our shared democratic values and respect for universal human rights. We are committed to fostering an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual trust and confidence, that will reinforce our democratic values and democratic institutions,” the White House stated.

What are the main target areas of the initiative?

Primarily, the iCET seeks to place New Delhi and Washington D.C. as “trusted technology partners” to construct provide chains and assist the co-production and co-development of things. A White House truth sheet launched after the inaugural dialogue provides a broad define of areas the 2 international locations intend to discover to develop the depth of tech partnership and cooperation between their governments, companies, and tutorial establishments.

Key takeaways embody organising a analysis company partnership to drive collaboration in areas like AI; creating a brand new defence industrial cooperation roadmap to speed up technological cooperation for joint growth and manufacturing; creating frequent requirements in AI; creating a roadmap to speed up defence technological cooperation and ‘innovation bridge’ to attach defence startups; supporting the event of a semiconductor ecosystem; strengthening cooperation on human spaceflight; advancing cooperation on growth in 5G and 6G; and adopting OpenRAN community know-how in India.

What has been the progress to this point?

India and the U.S. have made “significant progress” in a number of key areas recognized for collaboration because the launch of iCET, a possible consequence of a number of high-profile visits and talks between officers and stakeholders over the previous yr. As Mr. Doval talked about within the second spherical of iCET talks, the 2 international locations have already put in place the Quantum Coordination Mechanism, launched a public-private dialogue (PDD) on telecommunication to drive collaboration in OpenRAN, 5G and 6G, and held “important exchanges” on AI and house. In March, India and the U.S. signed an MoU on establishing a semiconductor provide chain that paved the best way for making a semiconductor sub-committee to evaluation suggestions from an industry-led activity power launched in reference to the iCET.

On the defence entrance, the 2 international locations are near concluding a mega jet engine deal, with a remaining announcement anticipated throughout Mr. Modi’s go to.

In addition, a brand new initiative to advance cutting-edge know-how cooperation, referred to as the India-U.S. Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X), is about to be launched in the course of the go to. India and the U.S. have additionally concluded a roadmap for ‘Defence Industrial Cooperation’ to information the coverage course for the subsequent few years. The two international locations have additionally established a Strategic Trade Dialogue to take away regulatory “barriers” and evaluation present export management norms to take ahead strategic know-how and commerce collaborations envisaged beneath iCET.

Both the NSAs categorical optimism that the initiative will obtain extra particular and tangible leads to the close to future.