Research, transfer and co-production: Tech ties to cover over 20 domains

New Delhi, June 23

India and the US have identified about two dozen areas of technology partnership as a direct result of the discussion between PM Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden, said Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra at the end of the day’s official engagements in Washington on Thursday.

Mega investments

• Micron to set up assembly line and test facility with $2.75 bn investment
• Advanced Applied Materials to invest $400 million to set up engineering centre
• Lam Research to train 60,000 Indian engineers
• Joint development and commercialisation of AI and quantum technologies

“You will find very clearly that technology, in particular advanced technology across various domains, has been one of the most substantive outcomes from the visit and from the discussions between the leaders,” he said.

Technology cooperation covered transfer, trade and services as also research, co-production and on developing technologies across different sectors, said the Foreign Secretary. In this respect, he referred to Micron’s plan to set up an assembly line and test facility in India with a total investment of about $2.75 billion; Lam Research’s decision to train 60,000 Indian engineers and plan by Advanced Applied Materials to invest $400 million to set up an engineering centre heavily centred on technology. The Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies has led to the resolve to set up a quantum coordination mechanism and the quantum information and science and technology agreement. This is besides deliberations on quantum entanglement exchange, quantum economic development consortium and R&D under the India-US Science and Technology Endowment Fund.

Kwatra also referred to joint development and commercialisation of AI and quantum technologies, high-powered computing technology and development of source codes. Google’s AI Research Centre also announced to continue investment through the $10 billion digitalisation fund, he said.

In S&T, there was an implementation arrangement relating to cyber physical systems and secure and trustworthy cyberspace. The two sides also agreed to fund joint projects, which would include semiconductors, next generation communication, cybersecurity, green technologies and intelligent transport systems.

In the India-US defence industrial cooperation roadmap and energy too, there are half a dozen agreements, including the GE decision to make jet engines and the plan to buy MQ-9B Reaper drones.