The High Tech Boost – India-US Strategic Partnership | 2nd February 2023 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis

What's the article about?

• It talks about the India-US Critical and Emerging Technology Initiative (iCET).

Relevance:

• GS2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests; India-US Relations
• GS3: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
• Prelims

Context:

• National Security Advisor Ajit Doval recently met his American counterpart Jake Sullivan to launch the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).
• In May 2022, US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the iCET to elevate and expand their strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries.
• The iCET involves collaboration in a range of areas including quantum computing, semiconductors, 5G and 6G wireless infrastructure, and civilian space projects such as lunar exploration.
• The two sides are also focused on cooperation in defence production.

What are Critical and Emerging Technologies (CETs)?

• Critical and emerging technologies (CETs) are a subset of advanced technologies that are potentially significant to national security.
• The following critical and emerging technology areas are of particular importance to the national security:
  • Advanced Computing
    • Supercomputing
    • Edge computing
    • Cloud computing
    • Data storage
    • Computing architectures
    • Data processing and analysis techniques
  • Advanced Engineering Materials
    • Materials by design and material genomics
    • Materials with new properties
    • Materials with substantial improvements to existing properties
    • Material property characterization and lifecycle assessment
  • Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Technologies
    • Aerospace, maritime, and industrial development and production technologies
    • Full-authority digital engine control, hot-section manufacturing, and associated technologies
  • Advanced Manufacturing
    • Additive manufacturing
    • Clean, sustainable manufacturing
    • Smart manufacturing
    • Nanomanufacturing
  • Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management
    • Payloads, sensors, and instruments
    • Sensor processing and data fusion
    • Adaptive optics
    • Remote sensing of the Earth
    • Signature management
    • Nuclear materials detection and characterization
    • Chemical weapons detection and characterization
    • Biological weapons detection and characterization
    • Emerging pathogens detection and characterization
    • Transportation-sector sensing
    • Security-sector sensing
    • Health-sector sensing
    • Energy-sector sensing
    • Building-sector sensing
    • Environmental-sector sensing
  • Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies
    • Nuclear energy systems
    • Fusion energy
    • Space nuclear power and propulsion systems
  • Artificial Intelligence
    • Machine learning
    • Deep learning
    • Reinforcement learning
    • Sensory perception and recognition
    • Next-generation AI
    • Planning, reasoning, and decision making
    • Safe and/or secure AI
  • Autonomous Systems and Robotics
    • Surfaces
    • Air
    • Maritime
    • Space
  • Biotechnologies
    • Nucleic acid and protein synthesis
    • Genome and protein engineering including design tools
    • Multi-omics and other biometrology, bioinformatics, predictive modeling, and analytical tools for functional phenotypes
    • Engineering of multicellular systems
    • Engineering of viral and viral delivery systems
    • Biomanufacturing and bioprocessing technologies
  • Communication and Networking Technologies
    • Radio-frequency (RF) and mixed-signal circuits, antennas, filters, and components
    • Spectrum management technologies
    • Next-generation wireless networks, including 5G and 6G
    • Optical links and fiber technologies
    • Terrestrial/undersea cables
    • Satellite-based communications
    • Hardware, firmware, and software
    • Communications and network security
    • Mesh networks/infrastructure independent communication technologies
  • Directed Energy
    • Lasers
    • High-power microwaves
    • Particle beams
  • Financial Technologies
    • Distributed ledger technologies
    • Digital assets
    • Digital payment technologies
    • Digital identity infrastructure
  • Human-Machine Interfaces
    • Augmented reality
    • Virtual reality
    • Brain-computer interfaces
    • Human-machine teaming
  • Hypersonics
    • Propulsion
    • Aerodynamics and control
    • Materials
    • Detection, tracking, and characterization
    • Defense
  • Networked Sensors and Sensing
  • Quantum Information Technologies
    • Quantum computing
    • Materials, isotopes, and fabrication techniques for quantum devices
    • Post-quantum cryptography
    • Quantum sensing
    • Quantum networking
  • Renewable Energy Generation and Storage
    • Renewable generation
    • Renewable and sustainable fuels
    • Energy storage
    • Electric and hybrid engines
    • Batteries
    • Grid integration technologies
    • Energy-efficiency technologies
  • Semiconductors and Microelectronics
    • Design and electronic design automation tools
    • Manufacturing process technologies and manufacturing equipment
    • Beyond complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology
    • Heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging
    • Specialized/tailored hardware components for artificial intelligence, natural and hostile radiation environments, RF and optical components, high-power devices, and other critical applications
    • Novel materials for advanced microelectronics
    • Wide-bandgap and ultra-wide-bandgap technologies for power management, distribution, and transmission
  • Space Technologies and Systems
    • On-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing
    • Commoditized satellite buses
    • Low-cost launch vehicles
    • Sensors for local and wide-field imaging
    • Space propulsion
    • Resilient positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT)
    • Cryogenic fluid management
    • Entry, descent, and landing

Analysis:

• High technology cooperation has long been a major focus of US-India relations.
• Early advances in India’s nuclear and space programmes in the 1950s and 1960s involved significant inputs from the US.
• But the US nuclear sanctions from the 1970s steadily whittled down the extent of bilateral high-tech cooperation.
• The historic civil nuclear initiative of 2005 opened the door for renewed technological cooperation.
• But residual restrictions on technology transfer in Washington and Delhi’s political ambivalence and bureaucratic inertia prevented the best use of the new possibilities.
• The iCET process, which will be monitored and driven from the PMO in Delhi and the White House in Washington, will hopefully bring greater coherence to this round of India-US technological engagement.
• Lending urgency to the iCET is the growing convergence of Indian and US interests in managing the security, economic, and technological challenges presented by a rising and assertive China.
• India is also looking to reduce its over dependence on Russian weapons and military technology and to produce more weapons at home in partnership with western countries.

Way Forward:

• If implemented with speed and purpose, the bilateral Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) could lend a new strategic depth and breadth to the expanding engagement between India and the United States.