India, US to enhance tech commerce; to focus on semiconductor, telecom, high-end computing

New Delhi: India and the US will focus on measures to facilitate greater technology sharing, co-production opportunities with semiconductor, 5G and 6G telecom network, quantum and high-end computing, said a joint statement released on Friday.

The statement dated June 22 released after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in the US said that both governments have committed to promote policies and adapt regulations to facilitate greater technology sharing, co-development, and co-production opportunities between US and Indian industry, government, and academic institutions.

India and US have signed multiple pacts to push bilateral commerce, technology transfer, joint development of technologies in the area of semiconductor, 5G and 6G telecom and open source based telecom network, quantum and high performance computing etc. as both nations enhance commitment towards trusted network and supply chain ecosystem.

"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed the signing of an MoU on Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership as a significant step in the coordination of our countries' semiconductor incentive programs. This will promote commercial opportunities, research, talent, and skill development," the joint statement said.

Both leaders welcomed computer memory chip maker Micron Technology's announcement to set up a semiconductor assembly and test facility in Gujarat entailing an investment of USD 2.75 billion with support from the Indian government. The plant is expected to create up to 5,000 new direct and 15,000 community jobs opportunities in next five years.

"The leaders also welcomed Lam Research's proposal to train 60,000 Indian engineers through its Semiverse Solution virtual fabrication platform to accelerate India's semiconductor education and workforce development goals, and an announcement by Applied Materials Inc, to invest USD 400 million to establish a collaborative engineering centre in India," the statement said.

With the vision of creating secure and trusted telecommunications, resilient supply chains, and enabling global digital inclusion, Biden and Modi launched two joint task forces on advanced telecommunications, focused on Open RAN and research and development in 5G/6G technologies.

"Public-private cooperation between vendors and operators will be led by India's Bharat 6G Alliance and the U.S. Next G Alliance. We are partnering on Open RAN field trials and rollouts, including scaled deployments, in both countries with operators and vendors of both markets, backed by US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) financing," the statement said.

Biden and Modi emphasised on the need to put in place a "Trusted Network" and "Trusted Sources" bilateral framework.

Both leaders acknowledged the profound opportunities and significant risks associated with artificial intelligence.

They committed to develop joint and international collaboration on trustworthy and responsible AI, including generative AI, to advance AI education and workforce initiatives, promote commercial opportunities, and mitigate against discrimination and bias.

India and US have set up a joint Indo-US. Quantum Coordination Mechanism for collaboration among industry, academia, and governments. It will work towards a comprehensive Quantum Information Science and Technology agreement between the two countries.

"The United States and India will sustain and grow quantum training and exchange programmes and work to reduce barriers to US-India research collaboration," the statement said.

The leaders welcomed the launch of a USD 2-million grant programme under the US-India Science and Technology Endowment fund for the joint development and commercialization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies, and encouraged public-private collaborations to develop high performance computing (HPC) facilities in India.

"President Biden also reiterated his government's commitment to work with US Congress to lower barriers to US exports to India of HPC technology and source code," the statement said.

As part of the collaboration, the US side has pledged to make its best efforts in support of India's Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) joining the US Accelerated Data Analytics and Computing (ADAC) Institute.

US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) are jointly funding 35 innovative joint research collaborations in emerging technologies.

Under a new implementation arrangement between NSF and DST, both sides will fund joint research projects in computer and information science and engineering, cyber physical systems, and secure and trustworthy cyberspace.

"Furthermore, NSF and India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will bring fresh funding for joint projects in applied research areas such as semiconductors, next generation communication, cyber security, sustainability and green technologies and intelligent transportation systems," the statement said.

Biden and Modi reaffirmed their countries' commitment to an open, secure, inclusive, safe, interoperable, and reliable internet, and to continuing cooperation on a range of cybersecurity issues, including preventing and responding to cyber threats, promoting cybersecurity education and awareness and measures to build resilient cyber infrastructure.

"Both the United States and India are committed to sharing information about cyber threats and vulnerabilities, and to working together to investigate and respond to cyber incidents," the statement said.

The United States and India will explore ways to partner align efforts to advance the development and deployment of robust Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), including appropriate safeguards to protect privacy, data security and intellectual property.

India has developed a unique ID Aadhaar, unified payment interface to lower and ease financial transactions, CoWin platform to facilitate vaccination etc as part of DPI.

The US and India will explore developing a US-India Global Digital Development Partnership to bring together technology and resources from both countries to enable development and deployment of DPIs in developing countries, the statement said.