US to widen ambit of sharing tech on semiconductors, bio-tech & defence
The United States has shared the details of technologies it is ready to share with India to jointly produce and develop strategic technologies across key sectors, including space, defence, semiconductors, biotechnology, cybersecurity, advanced telecommunications and clean energy.
The White House on Tuesday gave the list of strategic technologies on which it was collaborating with India, in a ‘fact sheet’ titled “US and India committed to strengthening strategic technology partnership”. The fact sheet was the outcome of a meeting between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Monday.
Specialised semiconductor plant in India
A key segment of the expanding Indo-US partnership will be to establish a specialised semiconductor fabrication plant in India to manufacture infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors
Advertisement“These will be used in national security-relevant platforms,” the White House said. For this, the US would review technical assistance agreement and export licenses to promote technology transfers
These technologies would include small modular nuclear reactors, specialised submarine tracking sonobuoys, semiconductors for national security, bio-pharma, widening the ambit of outer space programmes and rare earth mining.
A key segment of this expanding partnership would be to establish a specialised semiconductor fabrication plant in India to manufacture infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors.
“These will be used in national security-relevant platforms,” the White House said. For this the US would review technical assistance agreement and export licenses to promote technology transfers.
In the space sector, the US said this was a ‘new era’ cooperation that would work towards a new ‘bilateral space accelerator’, which the White House described as “commercial space cooperation, including lunar exploration, human spaceflight, (collecting) geospatial data and services and the co-development of technology”.
The two sides have agreed to explore additional avenues for cooperation in space technologies, including docking missions on space stations, as well as India’s participation in the United States Traffic Coordination System for Space programme.
The two sides would look at next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence, advanced computing and quantum computing. The US-India Quantum Coordination Mechanism met last August, during which both countries committed to initiating new cooperation in quantum technology.
The two sides are advancing a “Bio-X” to promote biotechnology cooperation by leveraging the synergies between domestic programmes and enhancing the competitiveness of biotechnology industries in both countries. The US-India Advanced Materials R&D Forum, which convened its inaugural meeting in November 2024 is to expand collaboration between the US and Indian universities, national laboratories, and private sector researchers.
Sullivan and Doval advanced discussions to unlock new commercial partnerships around the deployment of small modular reactor technology in India. Yesterday Sullivan announced US efforts to finalise necessary steps to delist Indian nuclear entities, which will promote civil nuclear cooperation and resilient clean energy supply chains. The two countries are working at additional areas of cooperation in critical mineral supply chains such as for graphite, gallium, and germanium.
