U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET)

Subject : International Relations

Section: MSc

Concept :

India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry and U.S. Secretary of Commerce welcomed the recently launched S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).

About the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET):

It was launched by the US President and Indian Prime Minister on the sidelines of the Quad summit on May 2022.
Goal: To elevate and expand Indo-U.S. strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries.
The initiative will be spearheaded by the National Security Council Secretariat in India and the US National Security Council.
The initiative would help forge links between the government, academia, and industry in areas such as AI, quantum computing, 5G/6G, biotech, space, and semiconductors.
Under iCET, the two sides have identified six focus areas of co-development and co-production:
- strengthening innovation ecosystems;
- defense innovation and technology cooperation;
- resilient semiconductor supply chains;
- space;
- STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) talent;
- next-generation telecom.