India needs to build enough domestic capability in critical technologies to protect itself against supply disruptions and technology denial
while continuing to remain open to global technology and participate in international value chains, said Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary S Krishnan.
Speaking at a Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI) event in New Delhi on Thursday, Krishnan described this approach as “sovereign autonomy”.
“You need to be open to global technology because there are areas where you fall short and our people and our enterprises can continue to have access to the latest technology globally,” Krishnan said.
“At the same time, you need to build enough capacity domestically to do without any of these in case at some point you are denied any of this,” he added.
Balancing US, China and other partners
Krishnan’s comments come against the backdrop of India’s dependence on both the US and China across different parts of its technology ecosystem.
He noted that the US remains one of India’s largest investors and technology partners as well as its largest export destination. He cited more than $20 billion worth of mobile-phone exports to the US last year.
At the same time, “we also tend to depend deeply on China where the relationship is difficult”, he said.
Krishnan said India’s strategy therefore had to remain open and flexible rather than being built around a single source of technology or supply.
India cannot afford to be dependent
Krishnan said India needs to develop a presence across critical technology areas, from electronic goods such as mobile phones and laptops to software and digital platforms.
“In both of those spaces, I think it’s important to understand that we need to have a degree of what I would call sovereign autonomy,” Krishnan said.
He said the concept had three broad elements: maintaining access to global technology, building domestic capacity to withstand possible denial or disruption, and developing a sufficiently important role in global value chains.
Not about doing everything in India
Krishnan stressed that sovereign autonomy should not be confused with trying to produce everything domestically.
“You don’t try to do everything in-house,” he said. Modern technology supply chains are too interconnected for any country to realistically capture the entire value chain, he said.
Instead, India should establish a sufficiently large presence in strategically important parts of those chains.
“You do a significant enough part of it to make sure that you’re indispensable to it,” he said.
