1-Feb-2023: Critical and Emerging Technologies Dialogue
India’s National Security Advisor hold talks with the US counterpart on the first dialogue on Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) in the US.
Completion of the long-awaited NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) earth observation satellite is an excellent example of how the US-India partnership in space field.
Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) Initiative
- Launched by India and the US in May 2022
- Run by the National Security Councils of both countries
- Areas of cooperation:
- Scientific research and development
- Quantum and artificial intelligence
- Defense innovation
- Space
- Advanced telecom (6G, semiconductors)
- India is ready to share core technologies with US and expects same from US
- Forges closer linkages between government, academia, and industry of both countries
- Objective is to provide cutting edge technologies to rest of the world
Significance of iCET Initiative
- Alignment of strategic, commercial, and scientific approaches in technology
- Seen as providing affordable cutting edge technologies to the world
- Expected to forge closer linkages between government, academia, and industry of both countries
- Likely to be mirrored in Quad and expanded to NATO, Europe, and the rest of the world
National Security Advisor (NSA)
- Formed in 1998
- Primary advisor to the Prime Minister of India
- Current NSA is Ajit Doval
- Presides over the National Security Council (NSC). NSC oversees political, economic, energy, and security issues of strategic concern. Operates within the executive office of the PM, liaising between the government's executive branch and intelligence services.
25-Apr-2018: India signs loan agreement with World Bank for US$ 125 million for “Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project”
A Loan Agreement for IBRD credit of US$ 125 (equivalent) for the “Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project” was signed with the World Bank on 24th April, 2018 in New Delhi.
The Objectives of the project is to nurture indigenous innovation, foster local product development and accelerate commercialization process by bridging critical skill and infrastructure gaps to promote affordable and innovative healthcare products generation for inclusive development and increasing competitiveness in India. The project would support consortia of public, private, and the academic institutions to overcome the key market failures currently holding back the development of an innovative biopharmaceutical and medical devices industry in India.
The project consists of the following parts:
- Strengthening of pilot-to market innovation ecosystem
- Acceleration of the pilot –to-market process for specific products and
- Project Management and monitoring & Evaluation.
The closing date of Innovate in India for Inclusiveness project is 30 June, 2023.
26-Jul-2018: Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & MyGov launches “Innovate India Platform”
Shri. R Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission and Shri. Arvind Gupta CEO, MyGov launched the “#InnovateIndia Platform”, a collaboration between the Atal Innovation Mission and MyGov, a citizen centric platform of the Government of India. The #InnovateIndia portal will serve as the common point for all the innovation happening across the nation.
Launching the platform, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission said that the #InnovateIndia MyGov-AIM portal creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level. Those searching for a critical innovation can leverage the portal advantageously for the benefit of the economy as well as national social needs.”
Some of the features of this platform are:
- The platform is open to all Indian citizens
- The users can View, comment, share, and rate the innovations crowdsourced on the #InnovateIndia platform
- View the leaderboard which is calculated based on the votes on each innovation.
- Citizens can share their/organizations/someone else’s innovation on the platform by login to the MyGov website
- These innovations can also be shared on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter
India has been a very innovation-oriented society, but our challenge has been a structured approach to innovation, capturing them and building an ecosystem to take them global. The current government initiative to capture and support innovation from ground up, is aimed at creating a structured ecosystem to encourage, enhance and develop India’s innovative character.
With the launch of the platform Indians will be able to upload and rate their/organizations innovation on the platform.