Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached the United States the place he’ll handle the US Congress together with the assorted conferences with US leaders and business heads. Much expectations have been constructed again house for the result of the go to and the US business can also be fairly excited on the prospects of cooperation within the enterprise entrance increasing in lots of horizons.

One of the most important elements of such prospects is the deal with expertise cooperation throughout many areas together with the strategic avenues of defence, area, cyber safety, Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing, superior supplies, semiconductors, next-gen telecom, and biotech.

In 2016, the US authorities declared India as a ‘Major Defence Partner’ (MDP) which allowed India to obtain defence applied sciences at par with these offered to the US’ closest allies in Natoplus-5. In the identical 12 months, India signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (Lemoa) –one of many three foundational defence pacts wanted to be signed by a rustic to acquire hi-tech army {hardware} from the US after which in September 2018, the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (Comcasa) was signed and in October 2020, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for geospatial cooperation too was effected.

Apart from the foundational agreements, the signing of the Memorandum of Intent (MoI) between the US Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Indian Defence Innovation Organisation-Innovations for Defence Excellence (DIO-iDEX) in December 2018, has set the roadmap for potential defence analysis on a sustained foundation. An additional increase was supplied with the signing of the Industrial Security Annex (ISA) through the 2+2 dialogue in December 2019, which offered the framework for alternate and collaboration between personal industries from each nations.

Defence cooperation and the deal with reworking that relationship from a buyer-seller relationship to that of partnership the place some parts of the gear and provide chain ecosystem may very well be met from India was supported by each nations and DIO-iDEX gave the correct fillip to have a look at the assorted potentialities the place expertise made in India might discover their area within the methods that went to the gear.

But harnessing strengths in expertise in associated areas in addition to the core defence sector was additionally seen as a pure step ahead. With US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi asserting the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in May 2022 to raise and develop the strategic expertise partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the governments, companies, and educational establishments of the 2 nations, the scope expanded for wider areas of expertise cooperation. The two-track 1.5 discussions that occurred in January and June this 12 months in Washington DC and New Delhi respectively attended by the nationwide safety advisers of each nations have set the achievable targets extra realistically and within the shortest time potential.

Clearly, these steps work to mutual benefit. India’s tryst with digital applied sciences and the participation of Indian corporations on this area have been transformative and lots of Indian corporations have leveraged AI applied sciences and contributed in enhancing the capabilities of weapons and gear.

Quite a number of US corporations, throughout industries together with these within the Big Tech sector, have established massive R&D facilities in India, partaking Indian expertise in cutting-edge tasks. The rising alternatives to harness Indian skills and technological build-ups in addition to the geopolitical challenges arising out of China’s assertiveness in harnessing vital and rising applied sciences for belligerence have necessitated a tighter response and capability constructing.

The semiconductor sector is an space the place India not solely confirmed curiosity however took steps to incentivise investments in expertise and manufacturing setup after asserting India’s Semiconductor Mission (ISM) in March 2022.

In March this 12 months, India and the US signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on semiconductor provide chain and innovation partnership through the Commercial Dialogue 2023 and underneath that, agreed to determine a collaborative mechanism between the 2 governments on semiconductor provide chain resilience and diversification in view of the US’ CHIPS and Science Act and ISM.

The US has already indicated its support for the development of a fabrication ecosystem in India and has encouraged joint ventures and partnerships for mature technology nodes and advanced packaging.

A focus on quantum technologies has already been envisaged and both sides have established a quantum coordination mechanism with participation from industry and academia. This is very crucial as there are capabilities available in India for quantum key generations and related technologies that can be used by both the countries the establish secure networks across sectors.

With India opening up the space sector, the possibilities of ISRO working together with NASA on human space flight opportunities, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project and STEM talent exchanges could enhance further opportunities have been identified. The inaugural US-India Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue (AD3) in Mat this year has identified areas for deepening collaboration on evolving new defense domains, with an emphasis on space and AI and iCET would provide an opportunity to work on identified areas.

AI offers significant opportunities to collaborate on many fronts right from setting standards to using the technology for specific areas of strategic usage. Already a lot of projects are working in both countries for using AI to optimise performance and they could be jointly harnessed for specified projects. At the same time, focus on accelerated computing should also be envisaged so that the usage of specialised processors like GPUs that are cost-effective and more efficient are enhanced. On High-Performance Computing (HPC), the US should be more forthright to transfer technology to India so that mission mode projects like the Hydrogen mission can be undertaken more optimally.

Looking forward, there’s a substantial agenda to be undertaken within the coming years, with outlined areas of cooperation and a supportive tech neighborhood. For now, the much-awaited switch of expertise of the GE-F414 fighter plane engine for manufacturing in India to go on board India’s indigenous LCA ‘Tejas’ Mk II and different future fighters shall be an enormous confidence booster. This will be certain that export management rules and bureaucratic processes don’t impede the progress of the India-US strategic expertise cooperation.

(Subimal Bhattacharjee is a commentator on cyber and safety points round Northeast India. He may be reached @subimal on Twitter. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the writer’s personal. The Quint neither endorses neither is liable for them.)