The Hindu Editorial Analysis: ICET And Future Of India-U.S. Cooperation?

The Hindu Editorial Analysis: ICET And Future Of India-U.S. Cooperation?

Today’s ”The Hindu Editorial Analysis: ICET And Future Of India-U.S. Cooperation?”, Is Based On India-U.S. Relations. In This Article, We Are Covering: What Is ICET?, History Of Ups And Downs In U.S.-India Cooperation, Way Forward For India-U.S. Cooperation?, etc.

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Context Of Today’s Editorial Analysis

In News

• Recently, the U.S. and India inaugurated their initiative on critical and emerging technologies (ICET).
• The promise of this initiative, if fulfilled, could have a transformative impact on India-U.S. relations.

Background

President Biden and Prime Minister Modi announced the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (ICET) in May 2022 to elevate and expand strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries.

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What Is ICET?

Under ICET, the two sides(India-U.S.) have identified six focus areas of co-development and co-production:

• Strengthening innovation ecosystems
• Defence innovation and technology cooperation
• Resilient semiconductor supply chains
• Space
• STEM talent
• Next generation telecom

Strengthening Innovation Ecosystems

• Signing a new Implementation Arrangement for a Research Agency Partnership between the National Science Foundation and Indian science agencies to expand international collaboration in a range of areas — including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and advanced wireless — to build a robust innovation ecosystem between India and U.S
• Establishing a joint Indo-U.S. Quantum Coordination Mechanism with participation from industry, academia, and government to facilitate research and industry collaboration.
• To develop common standards and benchmarks for trustworthy AI
• Promoting collaboration on High Performance Computing (HPC).

Defense Innovation and Technology Cooperation

• Developing a new bilateral Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap
• Enhancing long-term research and development cooperation, with a focus on identifying maritime security and intelligence surveillance reconnaissance (ISR) operational use cases.
• Launching a new “Innovation Bridge” that will connect U.S. and Indian defense startups.

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Space

• Strengthening cooperation on human spaceflight, including establishing exchanges that will include advanced training for an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)/Department of Space astronaut at NASA Johnson Space Center.
• Identifying innovative approaches for the commercial sectors of the two countries to collaborate, especially with respect to activities related to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project. Within the next year, NASA, with ISRO, will convene U.S. CLPS companies and Indian aerospace companies to advance this initiative.

STEM Talent

• Initiating new STEM talent exchanges by expanding the Professional Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program (PESEP) to include space science, Earth science, and human spaceflight and extending a standing invitation to ISRO to participate in NASA’s biannual International Program Management Course.
• Expanding the agenda of the U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group to include planetary defense.
  Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Talent.

Next Generation Telecommunications

• Launching a public-private dialogue on telecommunications and regulations.
• Advancing cooperation on research and development in 5G and 6G, facilitating deployment and adoption of Open RAN in India, and fostering global economies of scale within the sector.

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History Of Ups And Downs In U.S.-India Cooperation

Since the 1950s, the U.S. has played a significant role in India’s development efforts and quest for technological capability.

Cold War

• Cold War persuaded the U.S. to provide sweeping assistance in a range of areas to India.
• While the Soviet Union emerged as a major player in areas like steel, heavy electricals, petroleum and mining, the U.S. focused on modernising engineering and management education, science and technology (S&T), and agriculture.

Nuclear Energy

• The U.S. helped build India’s first reactors for research and power.
• An entire generation of Indian nuclear scientists were trained in the U.S., including some who subsequently helped in making nuclear weapons.
• But this cooperation was abruptly ended after India’s first nuclear test in 1974.
• The same could be said, though in a somewhat different manner, for India’s space programme.

To Modernise Indian Education

The massive aid provided by the U.S. to modernise Indian education, especially engineering and management, should have led to a growing industrial sector, but the Indian economy stalled in the 1960s and India ended up with a system where IIT and IIM graduates ended up benefiting the U.S. economy.

Agriculture

• The one area in which India did get lasting and important benefits was agriculture where American S&T helped trigger the Green Revolution and end an era of food shortages.
• The Bangladesh War of 1971 and the 1974 nuclear tests led to a three-decade estrangement and a draconian American technology denial regime whose prime target was India, all in the name of non-proliferation.

Gandhi-Reagan Science and Technology Initiative

• Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Gandhi-Reagan Science and Technology Initiative led to the 1984 India-U.S. MoU on sensitive technologies, commodities and information.
• This was the outcome of a new American willingness to promote Indian S&T and the arms industry.
• In 1987, the U.S. agreed to assist India’s Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas) programme and allowed the sale of front line GE 404 engine to India.
• However, broader cooperation stalled because the U.S. was unwilling to let go of its non-proliferation agenda.

After India’s Nuclear Test

• After the Soviet collapse, the U.S. pushed for the unconditional extension of the non-proliferation treaty and began to arm-twist countries to sign a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• At this stage, India realised that there was no option but to come out as a declared nuclear weapons power.
• There was another round of sanctions after the 1998 nuclear tests, but by this time the U.S. had begun to get a measure of the challenge it was facing from China.
• It now decided to play the India card, but to do this, there was need to spit out the nuclear proliferation pill stuck in our joint throats.
• This is what was done with the India-U.S. nuclear deal of 2008, which is the basis of our current engagement with the U.S.

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Way Forward For India-U.S. Cooperation?

• India has steadily advanced in status as a friend of the U.S. and has purchased U.S. weapons and systems worth billions of dollars.
• It is now deemed to be a Major Defence Partner, though not a Major Non-Nato Ally, a much more useful designation that Pakistan still retains.
• The course has not been problem-free — witness the pressure India faced under CAATSA and on account of its oil trade with Russia.
• The ICET has set up a range of ambitious goals which mean a great deal for India. Some of them are aspirational, others political.
• A few are over the top, such as the belief that the U.S. will help India to develop advanced jet engines.

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