After many high-profile visits of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to US, the US is now ready to ease transfer of technology in critical Defence trade with India. US ambassador Richard Verma, in an interaction with the students of IIM Bengaluru on Wednesday, said he did not see transfer of technology in Defence sector as an impediment to innovation, and a lot of restrictions will fall even more.
Verma delivered a lecture on “Technology innovations and societal change” organised by IIM Bangalore. Pitching for Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ he said there is a need to streamline the system of not only transferring the technology from the US to India but also building and developing in India itself. “What we are talking about is not just sending technology from the US to India, we are now talking about building and developing right here in India,” he added.
“Defence sector is one of the most promising and exciting areas because we are talking about co-production, joint production, joint research and joint development - Military product, technology hardware, not just for the Indian armed forces, but making them available for the Third Countries as well. So, that means collaboration from start to finish. We need to streamline and make it easier,” he said.
The US envoy also commented on FDI and said it has been opening up. “Some sectors are completely opened and some sectors are closed,” he said. He declined to further comment on the issue saying, “The only reason I am hesitant on FDI because I don’t get to control FDI policy here in India,” the US Ambassador said.