On June 29th, AMCHAM organized a second interaction with Ambassador Arun Singh, Member, National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), PMO, Government of India, on High Technology. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, welcomed Ambassador Singh and other participants including Mr. Som Satsangi, Chairman – ICT Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Hewlett – Packard Enterprise India, Mr. Amrit Deo Singh, Chairman – Cyber Security Committee, AMCHAM and Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting, Mr. Ambrish Bakaya, Chairman – Infrastructure and Smart Cities Committee, AMCHAM and Director, Corporate Affairs, India, Hewlett-Packard India, Mr. Harish Krishnan, Chairman – CSR Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagements, India & SAARC, Cisco, Mr. KPM Das, National Cyber Security Officer, Cisco, Mr. Vivek Vasishtha, Executive Director & Country Leader – IBM India, Mr. Ripu Bajwa, Director & General Manager, Data Protection Solutions, India, Dell Technologies, Mr. Tabrez Ahmad, Group Director Government Affairs & Public Policy, Dell Technologies, Mr. Vivek Abraham, Regional Director, External Strategy, Salesforce – India and South Asia, Mr. Osamazaid Rahman, Associate Director, Government Relations, Honeywell, and Mr. Ankur Malhotra, Head, Corporate Affairs & CSR, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India. The meeting objective was to design a blueprint for recommendations in the U.S.-India partnership in high technology.

Ambassador Arun Singh said that emerging technologies such as quantum computing, cyber security, 5G-6G communications, biotechnology and space sciences own humongous opportunities in the U.S.-India partnership in high technology. He emphasized the revival of the High-Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) was vital. Members highlighted that India is a brain of all the emerging technologies (AI, ML, 5G, quantum computing etc.) and R&Ds and operations of these technologies were happening in India. Trusted technology as key for all new technologies and creation of a capacity institutional mechanism was critically important. Some of the points of discussion included the need of skilling of cyber security professionals, how academia has to play a dominant role in India to achieve the next level of technological growth and with the right skill setups India can deep dive into quantum computing. The importance of designing a roadmap for fighting new and emerging cyber threats in the coming future, challenges in the public procurement portal, the lack of data storage causing challenges regarding digital infrastructure and how government structure for joint task force with industries must be encouraged, was discussed. Commercial and strategic operations in the U.S.-India cyber security collaborations, the importance of manufacturing supply chain networks in India and QUAD activities between both governments were mentioned. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, in her concluding remarks, mentioned that there were huge opportunities in emerging technologies that should be explored and utilized in the U.S.-India high technology space.