Opinion: Technology is the new glue
The India-US Joint Statement has put focus on technology that has many spin-off sectors waiting to be exploited
By Jaideep Chanda
The Indo-US Joint Statement of 22 June 2023 makes it abundantly clear that technology is the new glue that will bind India-US relations for some time to come. It spans five of the six broad themes – defence, clean energy, economy, health, and technology itself. The last theme is a purely geopolitical one ie, strategic convergence.
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Whether this translates into opportunities for Indian investors and startups will remain a function of the confidence the Indian authorities can generate in the market in both countries. However, this is not the sole responsibility of the authorities – investors and startups too need to take the plunge if they want a share of the pie. Let us look at the opportunities emerging from this Joint Statement.
Innovation Bridges
At the strategic level, the January 2023 Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) already laid out the framework for cooperation on AI, quantum computing, semiconductors and wireless telecommunication, and identified biotech, advanced materials and rare earth processing as emerging technologies. These are being manifested through ‘innovation bridges’ such as expos, hackathons and pitch sessions. All these sectors need high-skill professionals and if these technology centres come up in India, this could finally see a reverse brain drain or, if not, at least a reduction in the slowing down of the migration of high-tech manpower to the US. This straight away translates into an opportunity for HR firms which can gear themselves up to manage these professionals.
The part of the statement which carries the most impact, if implemented, would be the one on the development of semiconductors. The intergovernmental MoUs apart, what is of value is Micron Technology’s $875 million semiconductor assembly and test facility that will come up in India.
To date, barring the Vedanta-Foxconn plant coming up at Dholera, Gujarat, nothing else has fructified on the ground since most investors lacked mature node fabs as technology partners. Micron, being the fifth largest semiconductor company in the world, passes muster. The plant is expected to create 5,000 direct and 15,000 community jobs in the next five years. This and the Vedanta-Foxconn initiatives would need to be boosted through a huge training drive for which Lam Research’s proposal to train 60,000 Indian engineers via a virtual fabrication platform is indeed the need of the hour. This brings in opportunities in the education and training sectors of the industry as well and would be a good expansion for the established names in the fields and also for niche educational startups.
Space Cooperation
The space cooperation announcement, including the one for spaceflight to the International Space Station by 2024, is timely since the life of the ISS is expected to end by 2030. This should excite a lot of space-oriented startups with opportunities coming up across the space value chain. One key element would be to establish low-cost ground stations across the nation and in the neighbourhood. The ground station is the basic tool for harvesting space data and is the hub which provides radio interfaces between satellites and users for telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C), and payload data transmission and reception.
The signing of the Artemis Accords establishes India firmly into the league for manned space exploration, including on the Moon and Mars, and one can only hope that it includes as much focus on the development of civilian cadres of astronauts even while it uses the Air Force to provide the impetus.
The AI aspects of the statement also highlight Google’s intent to support over 100 Indian languages which comes as a boost to digital inclusion and hopefully a catalyst for the vernacular. Here too lies an opportunity for education startups and industry leaders to widen their scope.
Telecommunication
For the telecommunication sector, the absorption of the Open Radio Access Network technologies and developments in 5G/6G cooperation, including between Bharat 6G and US Next G Alliance, is the space to watch out for. The sector benefits from two Joint Task Forces and advanced telecommunications and funding from the US International Development Finance Corporation. The scope includes developing common standards, access to chipsets, and establishment of joint research and development projects.
Deftech
Finally, the nascent defence industry in India is being sought to be catalysed by the US-India Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X), which comprises a network of universities, startups, industry and think tanks to facilitate joint defence technology innovation and co-production of advanced defence technology between the respective industries of the two countries.
Deftech is a sector touted to pitch India into a double-digit multi-trillion dollar economy, and the industry would do well not to miss the bus which could propel companies and startups into the big league. Related to this is the security aspect of technology which manifest in the US Rip and Replace Program that targets Huawei and ZTE equipment, accused of espionage, and hence a threat to national security.
Telcos in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden have also been replacing Chinese equipment because of security concerns. With India joining this programme – the Joint Statement does not specify how this will emerge –, this will surely ruffle Chinese feathers with possible reciprocal measures which may actually cause more harm than good for India.
Technology has, for long, been present in India-US relations – either for the positive or the negative. If we had the civil-military nuclear deal on one side of the positive spectrum, we also had to contend with technology denial as was in the case of Kaveri engines post the US economic and technological sanctions due to the 1988 nuclear test explosions. To be fair, the India-US Joint Statement has the potential to catalyse the Indian economy and create jobs. It remains to be seen whether the industry and individuals bite the bait.
(The author is an alumnus of Takshashila Institution and a technophile)
