Jul 25, 2024 09:06 PM IST
India’s new UK-India Technology Security Initiative, following similar partnerships with the US and EU, aims to collaborate on emerging technologies for mutual benefit and to counter China’s tech advances.
The United Kingdom (UK)-India Technology Security Initiative (TSI) rounds off a trifecta of such bets taken by India–the country launched similar initiatives with the United Stated (US) and the European Union in 2023. Collaboration with leading nations (in terms of talent, technology, and capital) on emerging technologies, such as telecom security, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, biotechnology and semiconductors will certainly benefit India. To illustrate, all three partner jurisdictions are at the forefront of AI development, which is already becoming critical for economies. There is also an opportunity for India to gain from complementarities of all kinds — on AI, while India has signalled a regulatory approach that will resemble the US and the EU’s relatively conservative approach, the UK’s relaxed, light-touch regime is likely to be a safe harbour for innovation and experimentation, and the TSI would allow India to tap into that.
That said, while the agreements are bilateral, the implications could be much wider. Such collaborations will be also important in terms of fending off the China challenge. China’s push in emerging technologies is geared towards not just gaining competitive advantage but also an edge in conflict, the nature of which is changing–for some time now, it has been about cyber and telecom destabilisation as much as conventional war-posturing; the next frontier could be AI.
Against such a backdrop, India needs bilaterals with like-minded countries that are ahead in the emerging tech space. The TSI and the initiatives with the US and the EU are templates for such formulations–defence technology is a major area in the agreement with the US. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, and for that, execution challenges such as getting the international private sector to share IPs and balancing strategic autonomy with the need to inculcate trust for collaboration will need addressing.
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