June 18 :
The United States and India have reached an agreement on June 18 to begin new collaboration in quantum science and technology and to create a shared strategy framework for optimising the supply chain for biopharmaceuticals. Following Monday's second US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) conference in the nation's capital, the two nations issued a joint Fact Sheet.
Ajit Doval, the national security advisor, and Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor of the United States, presided over the meeting. New Delhi and Washington, DC, jointly launched the iCET in January 2023. When it comes to source code and high-performance computers, the Biden administration has promised to reduce trade barriers with India. In order to facilitate Open RAN field trials and roll-outs in both nations, the joint statement states that the two nations would establish public-private partnerships between the Bharat 6G Alliance in India and the Next G Alliance in the United States. Funding for the project will come from the United States.
Both nations have committed to establishing "new cooperation in quantum science and technology, including through launching a workshop on post-quantum cryptography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and facilitating visits of Indian technical experts from academia and the private sector to visit US national laboratories and quantum institutions," as per the joint fact sheet.
Additionally, the two nations have resolved to deepen their collaboration in the areas of digital twins, post-quantum migration and security, and quantum communication.
Together, they will promote R&D efforts with the goal of commercialising technologies for the benefit of society. The US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund, which has been supporting joint research and development to create public good through technology commercialization, has been a longstanding partner of the Indian government. The winners of the "Quantum Technologies and AI for Transforming Lives" competition will be announced soon, and the US and India are celebrating this milestone with an official ceremony.
As part of ongoing efforts by the Biden-Harris administration and the US Congress to reduce obstacles to US exports to India of high-performance computing and source code, they also expressed their delight at the Indian Centre for Development of Advanced Computing's decision to join the US Accelerated Data Analytics and Computing Institute, a multilateral information exchange mechanism.
The two national security agencies also reached an agreement to pool their resources in biotechnology and biomanufacturing. Key industry and government stakeholders from the US, India, ROK, Japan, and the EU were present at the June 5 launch of the "Bio-5", a Track 1.5 Biopharmaceutical Supply Chain Consortium, with the goal of strengthening the supply chains of active pharmaceutical ingredients, essential starting materials, and promoting high-impact research and development collaboration.
In their joint statement, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Biotechnology hailed the creation of a groundbreaking funding opportunity. This will allow the two agencies to back joint research projects aimed at boosting biotech innovation and the bioeconomy.
They additionally committed to "developing a joint Strategic Framework for building biopharmaceutical supply chain optimisation to strengthen global supply chains and reduce dependencies on single-source suppliers, in support of Bio-5, led by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of State on the US side, and the Departments of Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the Indian side."
The "Bio-X" initiative, which aims to boost biotechnology cooperation by combining domestic programmes to make both nations' biotech industries more competitive. This will help with areas like molecular communication and the Internet of Bio-Nano Things, among others. The two national security advisors were pleased to hear about the launch of the initiative. The United States and India have also committed to exploring cutting-edge telecom potential. Research and development for 5G and 6G were also part of the collaborative effort.
New Delhi and Washington will work together to deploy high-quality, cost-effective Open RAN technology at scale. One way to achieve this is through a USD 5 million USAID Edge Fund grant to Qualcomm and Mavenir. Mavenir will test its ORAN stack in India in partnership with Bharti Airtel, and Qualcomm will contribute an additional USD 9.4 million to the project. The two sides also discussed the recent finalisation of the US-India Open RAN Acceleration Roadmap and ongoing collaboration between the 5G and 6G R&D Task Force and continuing efforts between US and Indian industry to work towards large-scale Open RAN deployments in both India and the United States.
Under USAID's Emerging Technologies in the Indo-Pacific programme, they will also advertise Open RAN workforce development opportunities in India. The goal of this 18-month, $410,000 endeavour is to strengthen ties between Indian educational institutions and the Asia Open RAN Academy in the Philippines and to incorporate Open RAN-related educational materials into technical training programmes in India. Secure and trustworthy telecommunications products, components, and product-level security will be an area of cooperation between the two countries.
Both parties committed to "strengthening cooperation in 6G technologies through working groups that would potentially focus on evolving 6G related technologies like network sensing, intelligent reflecting surface, a human-centric cognition-based wireless access framework, and other priority areas."
According to the announcement, vendors and operators from both India and the US will work together under the leadership of the Bharat 6G Alliance in India and the Next G Alliance in the US to conduct Open RAN field trials and roll-outs in both countries. The US will provide money for this collaboration.
