Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the United States was a significant milestone in Indo-US relations. During the three-day visit, he met President Joe Biden, addressed Congress and engaged with Silicon Valley CEOs. The partnership is crucial as both countries tackle challenges from China, climate change and technology.
Some of the major takeaways from the PM’s visit include an agreement by Micron Technology to invest USD 2.75 billion in building a semiconductor facility in Gujarat providing 5000 direct jobs and around 15,000 community jobs. Applied Materials, another U.S. company, will establish a semiconductor center in India for commercialisation and innovation. This gives a fillip to India’s measures to boost domestic manufacturing of semiconductors and reduce its dependency on China. Lam Research will initiate a training program for 60,000 Indian engineers. India joined the Artemis Accords for space exploration cooperation and will collaborate with NASA on a joint mission to the International Space Station next year. India has agreed to buy drones under foreign military sales. General Electric, based in the US, will partner with Hindustan Aeronautics in India to produce jet engines, and sell MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones. A slew of investments means more jobs and more funds flowing into the country. A two-million-dollar grant programme for joint development and commercialisation of artificial intelligence and quantum technologies was launched. Trade has been growing steadily between the two nations and this visit cements what was long overdue.
Pitching Against China
The Biden administration also plans to simplify the visa process for skilled Indian workers in the US. A pilot program will be launched to facilitate domestic visa renewal for select petition-based temporary workers, eliminating the need for travel abroad. The program is expected to expand to include H1B and L skilled visas by 2024.
By signing foundational agreements, India gains access to the US’s modern networks, enabling interoperability by 2030. Additionally, India will adopt US rules and standards in fourth industrial technologies under the ICET framework. This strategic alignment with the US will set India apart from its South Asian neighbours, who are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
It is evident that the US seeks India as a counterforce to China in the Indo-Pacific while reducing India’s dependence on Russian arms. Some argue that India may end up sacrificing more, including its strategic autonomy, in the new transactional arrangement, with limited returns. This concern is heightened by the possibility of the US shifting the goalposts, as observed during the negotiations of the civil nuclear deal from 2005 to 2008. The INDUS-X scheme, jointly chaired by the Pentagon and iDEX, aims to match the Chinese challenge in AI innovation by leveraging Indian researchers. This way, the US military will be able to match, if not beat, the PLA’s 2035 deadline of robotic war (called intelligentised war) and make up for its talent shortage using Indian researchers to meet the Chinese challenge of becoming the world’s primary AI innovation centre by 2030. You guessed it right, that is the reason for relaxed visas since most Chinese talent have left back home. Additionally, the US seeks military basing rights in Indian shipyards, building upon previous agreements.
Need to weigh odds
In collaboration with the US, India’s actions may be perceived as a threat to China’s massive annual commerce and trade worth over USD 4 trillion, which traverses the 3000 nautical miles of the Indian Ocean region. Looking closely into the deal by GE, it can be observed that there will be no major transfer of Intellectual Property, only engine assembly rights (called indigenous production in India), like we have for Russian AL-31FP engines for the Su-30MKI, which are being made in Koraput since 2004. It may so happen that IAF will be saddled with the burden of maintaining yet another engine besides British, Russian and French.
It is clear that the US recognises India as a strategic partner against the Yellow Dragon. But what remains to be seen is whether India will gain as much as it is giving out.
