What can India expect from the various civil and military technology pacts inked and underlined during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S in February, weeks after Donald Trump was sworn in as President? And what does Trump in turn expect from India?
StratNews Global invited three experts:
- Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, Founder & President, Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research, and the author of several bestselling books on e-governance and technology,
- Lt General Raj Shukla(Retd), former Commander of Army Training Command and a UPSC Member, and a highly decorated soldier who has been consistently championing the need to develop indigenous hi-tech in the military domain, and
- Sanjay Kumar, a former Senior Director at the U.S. CHIPS Program Office (Department of Commerce), who has also held leadership roles at tech majors like Meta, Intel, Broadcom and NXP,
to join a roundtable, the first of a series of discussions on this topic.
“India seeks access to various advanced technologies, including military tech, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals,” from the U.S., said Dr Bhattacharya. But the U.S. under Trump follows the “America First” policy, prioritizing jobs and technology retention in the US, and he has been restrictive with technology-sharing, even with close allies in Europe and Canada. However, India is considered a key partner in the Indo-Pacific region, making technology collaboration strategically important, he added.
“There is one grim reality, but two great opportunities,” said General Shukla. The grim reality is India is very adverse strategic environment, particularly vis-a-vis China. The two opportunities are the fact that if the Trump team sees India as a valuable partner, unlike the Europeans, chances of tech transfers become greater, and two, unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump is a doer who will push things through quickly, he felt.
Sanjay Kumar explained why India has become a global hub for semi-conductor design, but is unable to manufacture chips domestically. While he was hopeful that once the extensive and extremely expensive (going into trillions of dollars) infrastructure for semi-conductor production was in place, India could leapfrog and start making them domestically within five years.
Watch this extract from the roundtable to understand the issues that determine Indo-U.S. technology transfers under a Donald Trump led dispensation.
And to get deeper insights into if and how India can leverage this to its advantage, watch the entire discussion as the three experts answer these questions through the prism of their own extensive experience, spanning civilian, military and geostrategic domains.
