Transfer of Defense Tech Not A Deterrent To Innovation: US Envoy To India

Transfer of technology in the defense sector cannot be seen as an impediment to innovation and a lot of restrictions would fall even more, US envoy to India said Wednesday.

“I don’t see transfer of technology as being an impediment to innovation. I actually think there is so much we can do right now, and whatever controls that still exist … lot of these restrictions will fall even and even more,” US Ambassador to India Richard Verma said at an interaction with the students at IIM-Bangalore.

Verma delivered a lecture on “Technology Innovations and Societal Change” organised by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. 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,” Verma said.

“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.

Asked whether he sees drastic changes in India’s FDI policy in coming days, Verma said it has been slowly opening. “It has been slowly opening. 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.