The Tuesday Interview | 'US-India agreements have provisions for institutionalised collaboration'

Last week, India and the US signed multiple agreements on space, climate, defence, and economic cooperation during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington. During the PM’s three-day visit, the Biden administration also tried to allay India’s long-pending concerns about technology transfer. In this interview with DH’s Sumit Pande, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology (Independent Charge) Jitendra Singh discusses the scope and impact of the ISRO-NASA collaboration and India’s entry into the Mineral Security Partnership. Excerpts:

How is this visit by Prime Minister Modi qualitatively different from ones in the past by other PMs?

The kind of excitement and enthusiasm witnessed this time have not been witnessed earlier. That is because, as Prime Minister, Modi has risen to that stature. He is now considered one of the world’s tallest leaders.

The PM has also been able to introduce to the world India’s inherent capacities and resilience, which the world was not aware of. For example, he has been talking about deep-sea missions consecutively in two Independence Day addresses.

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We were depending on other countries for our defence, but it’s just the other way around now. We are able to export defence equipment at a cost-effective price. We were importing mobiles; now we are exporting chips. We have taken a quantum leap, and the world is now looking at us not only as a force to reckon with but also as the best destinations to engage with.

What are the benefits of the landmark ISRO-NASA collaboration for the Indian space programme?

The Indian space programme has become quite self-sufficient now, though we began at a primitive stage. Now, we are almost on par with NASA. And many of our inputs are shared by NASA, like our pictures from Chandrayaan.

The very fact that we are now part of it is a recognition and opportunity for India to play a global role. And mind you, it has not happened at India’s asking; the US was keen that we should be part of it. In fact, they have been interested for many years now. So now that we are partners, we are equal partners; we are operating from a position of equal strength.

One of the defining characteristics of the PM’s regime has been the active engagement of India in global affairs, including crucial areas such as climate concerns and clean energy. Previously, India was not given the attention it deserved on these matters.

The mineral supply chain has been a critical issue for both India and the US. Do you think India’s entry into the Mineral Agreement Partnership would help the country reduce its dependence on China?

I am not going to get into that. But the very fact that the US and India agreed to collaborate in a way that supplements each other’s potential and capacities is a significant step forward. It indicates a shift towards a direction where no single country holds a monopoly.

India has been talking about technology transfer for a long time. You saw positive movement on that front during Modi’s US visit.

The agreements have provisions for institutionalised collaboration. Like the collaboration of the US quantum consortium with the Indian mission. We now see more institutionalised cooperation being put in place. There is a private-sector partnership in the field of semiconductors. It’s PPP plus PPP on a larger scale, with their public and private sectors coming to collaborate with the Indian public and private sectors.

Democratic backsliding in India was an issue that was raised in some quarters during PM Modi’s visit to the US. Former President Barack Obama also spoke about this.

What the Prime Minister has said about this is appropriate, and there is hardly anything to add to that. The resilience, consistency, and inherent strength of Indian democracy have actually been cited across the world. If we look around for countries that opted for democracy at the same time as India, we can see their course of events and what has happened in those countries. The prime minister rightly says that India is the mother of democracy, and you can’t question us on that.

The Opposition has questioned why the PM did not visit Manipur ahead of his US tour.

Going to the US does not mean the government has stopped functioning. That issue is being tackled appropriately by the concerned people.

When do you think elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held?

In a larger sense, the political process is already there because we have regular local body elections and district councils, which were introduced after nearly seven decades. So the grassroots political process is already there. If you are hinting at the assembly elections, that’s for the Election Commission of India to decide.