New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS): India and the US are working together to expand the strategic technology partnership and connect scientists from both the countries to collaborate on emerging technologies such as AI and smart connected cities, the government has said.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said this while presenting the Indo-US Endowment awards to 17 winning teams, to work together primarily to develop AI-enabled tech and quantum technologies.

Speaking at the US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF) award function here, attended by US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, Dr Singh said as a part of the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), new implementing agreements have been executed between the science agencies to expand international collaboration in a range of areas to build a robust innovation ecosystem.

“The DST-National Science Foundation joint call in the areas of computer and information science and engineering, cyber-physical systems and secure and trustworthy cyberspace has resulted in the award of 11 high pitch proposals,” the minister informed.

India and the US are at the pivotal point with the technologies shaping up for the future like artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, blockchain, green energy and quantum computing, getting ready to make one of the biggest technology transformations of the century.

In the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government “is creating an enabling innovation ecosystem with recent reforms like design linked incentives for semiconductors, PLI schemes for automobiles, drone policy and removing barriers through initiatives like faceless assessment,” said Dr Singh.

From 350 startups in 2014, the number swelled to over 1,40,000 startups. India is also home to over 110 unicorns where 23 of them emerged only last year, which is a sign of India’s rapid upward ride on the STI (science, technology and innovation) ladder, the minister informed.