What is the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET)?

Why in News?

• Recently, the National Security Advisors of India and the US led the inaugural meeting of the iCET in Washington, DC.

About the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET):

• It was launched by the US President and Indian Prime Minister on the sidelines of the Quad summit on May 2022.
• Goal: To elevate and expand Indo-U.S. strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries. 
• The initiative will be spearheaded by the National Security Council Secretariat in India and the US National Security Council.
• The initiative would help forge links between the government, academia, and industry in areas such as AI, quantum computing, 5G/6G, biotech, space, and semiconductors.
• Under iCET, the two sides have identified six focus areas of co-development and co-production: 
  • strengthening innovation ecosystems;
  • defense innovation and technology cooperation;
  • resilient semiconductor supply chains;
  • space;
  • STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) talent;
  • next-generation telecom;

Q1) What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing is a multidisciplinary field comprising aspects of computer science, physics, and mathematics that utilizes quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than on classical computers.

Source: India, US relaunch commercial dialogue on supply chain, establish semiconductor partnership

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