“Promising, Brilliant, Sharp”: PM Modi Effusive About Tech Collaboration With US

The India-US relation will thrive with the growing technical collaboration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden agreed at the end of another round of discussions with industry leaders today. The “Hi-Tech handshake” was a mega event where captains of industry from various fields, including semi-conductors,  manufacturing , space and start-ups had participated.

PM Narendra Modi said the coming together of talent and technology will pave the way for a new future. “This morning (meeting) is only among a few friends but has brought with it the guarantee of a bright future,” he said.

“Technical cooperation will be a big part of defining our partnership. We need you to expand our technology to new fields including bio-technology and quantum and innovation,” said President Biden.

“Our partnership is more than about new breakthrough and next deal. It is about taking climate change, tackling the universe, it is about lifting people out of poverty, curing cancer and other serious disease, preventing pandemic… creating a free, secure, prosperous future for our children,” he added. “Our partnership between India and United States will go a long way to define what the 21st Century looks like,” he added.

Calling the meet a great opportunity to take along “President Biden’s vision and capabilities and India’s aspirations and possibilities,” PM Modi said it was “honhaar, shandaar, dhardaar” (promising, brilliant, sharp).

Among those present were Apple’s Tim Cook, Revathi Advaithi, CEO, Flex, Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI, Mark Douglas, President and CEO, FMC Corporation, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella and Google’s Sundar Pichai.

The space sector — a new area of collaboration apart from semi-conductor supply chains — was represented by Bill Nelson, Administrator, NASA, Astronaut Sunita Williams,  Will Marshall, the chief of Planet Labs and Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani.

Micron Technology, along with India Semiconductor Mission, will build a semiconductor assembly and test facility in Gujarat  at a cost of $2.75 billion.

In space sector, India has signed the Artemis Accords for space exploration. By the end of this year, NASA and ISRO are developing a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation.

India and US have also formed mechanisms for joint research on quantum, Artificial Intelligence, and advanced wireless technologies.
A Minerals Security Partnership has also been forged to speed up the development of critical energy minerals supply chains globally.