Rajeev Chandrashekhar calls for framework where likeminded nations work together to shape future of technology

New Delhi [India], March 4 : Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has called for cooperation and a framework where like-minded nations work together to shape the future of technology.
While speaking at the panel discussion on "Materials That Matter: Battle for Securing Critical Supply Chain during the Raisina Dialogue 2023 on Friday, he said that India has been moving into an era where the nation is aspiring to become a semiconductor nation. Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Tadashi Maeda, Chairman of the Board, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) also participated in the discussion.
"We are certainly moving into an era as India where for the first time, we are aspiring to be a semiconductor nation. So conversations like this are suddenly becoming more important to us. It wasn't for the last decade," Chandrashekhar said.
"And so with the first fab and hopefully multiple fabs coming up in India and larger electronics ecosystem, these issues become a lot more pressing and important. And certainly that's why I reiterate that there is a need for more cooperation and a framework where like-minded nations work together to shape the future of technology," he added.
Responding to a question regarding the Indian perspective on technology and innovation, he said, "I think we see innovation, we see the digital economy as increasingly a bigger and bigger piece of what we do, what we experience in India, and we predict the same for the rest of the world."
He further said, "But, we are absolutely clear, and we say this again during the G20 with Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, that the world is one family, that we have to figure out some institutional framework where instead of these occasional conversations about the problems that we are in, that we sit down and have a decade long perspective on technology, innovation, talent, risk and materials and resources."
Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government on many occasions called for the need for the democracies of the world to work together and shape the future of technology in general and innovation in particular. He stressed that the future of Tech is going to be more intense in the coming decade.

"We have been for some years and our government under Prime Minister has been very loudly and from as many occasions as possible talking about the need for the democracies of the world to work together and shape the future of technology in general and innovation in particular whether that is semiconductors and electronics whether that is on the Internet," Rajeev Chandrashekhar said.
"There are so many areas that in a lot of ways that we have as individual governments allowed this thing to get away from us and then find ourselves in these problematic situations where there is this concentration of electronics capabilities and capacities in a particular geography. We suddenly wake up and find that a certain country has marched well ahead of the rest of the world on AI and are threatening to swamp us. And certainly, I think as democracies we should be clear about certain clear goals in that the future of Tech and Tech is going to be only more intense and more disruptive in the coming decade," he added.
In his remarks at the panel discussion on "Materials That Matter: Battle for Securing Critical Supply Chain", Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that there has always been a competition for resources.

"I certainly don't think this is a battle. I think it's a competition. And I don't believe that this is some new phenomenon that we are seeing in the world. There's always been a competition for resources," Rajeev Chandrashekhar said.
In the past, it was hydrocarbon energy and then we moved on to some things and it is certainly clear that in the last three, or four years this rapid acceleration of digitization has caused these demand spikes in areas that were not necessarily the spikes a few years ago or a decade ago," he added.
He noted that there is a new world order that is emerging in electronics and semiconductors. He said that the new world order includes nations which were not there in the past.
Rajeev Chandrashekhar said, "I think the bigger story is that there is this new world order that is emerging on electronics and semiconductors and participating in this new world order are countries that were not there in the past."
He further said, "And so therefore there is this scramble, if you want to call it that, for these underlying resources and inputs that go into these industries." Union Minister said that he would refer to it as competition and not as a battle.