"Ajit Doval is an international treasure": US Ambassador Garcetti praises India's NSA, lauds India's Fintech growth

New Delhi, June 14: "Ajit Doval is an international treasure," said US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti as he praised India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) hailing his humble background.

 

Mentioning Doval’s humble origins and his raising as a village boy, Garcetti said, “India’s NSA has not only become a national treasure but an international treasure.”

 

 

 

 

The US envoy to India was addressing the United States-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) meeting in New Delhi. “When I look at digital payments and financial technology that India has, we have rocked the world. A ‘tea wala’ in a village makes sure that she gets direct payment from the government on her phone, 100% of each one of those rupees,” Garcetti further added, highlighting the advancements made in the fields of fintech and digital payments.

 

 

 

“We hear all these talks about 4G, 5G and 6G, but here in India we have something more powerful than that-‘Guruji’,” Garcetti told the participants, referring to a meeting he had with multi-faith leaders in India.

 

Making remarks at the United States-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) meet in Delhi, Garcetti said, “When I look at the foundation between the United States and India, it is so strong, it is so clear that Indians love Americans and Americans love Indians.”

 

 

On Tuesday, Doval and American counterpart Jake Sullivan unveiled an ambitious roadmap for Indo-US collaboration in seven specific high-technology areas, including semiconductors, next-generation telecommunication, artificial intelligence and defence.

 

After the roadmap was unveiled at an event, Sullivan said both sides are looking at a number of "deliverables" during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to Washington, which are fundamentally designed to "remove obstacles" for a deeper cooperation in the areas of defence, high technology, trade and a greater exchange of students.

 

 

The roadmap for collaboration was announced at the second Track-1.5 dialogue on the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) that was organised by industry chamber CII. "As we look ahead to the State visit that Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi will be embarking upon to Washington next week, a number of the deliverables at that visit are not just bullet points on a page.

 

"They are fundamentally designed to remove obstacles in defence and high-tech trades and in taking away obstacles that have stood in the way of better collaboration among our scientists and researchers," Sullivan said.

 

In a major move, US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi announced the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in May last year to elevate and expand the strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the two countries. The formal movement on the framework took place in January.

 

In his remarks, Doval said the iCET will give an orbital jump to the strategic relations between India and the United States.

 

The iCET is expected to forge closer linkages between the government, academia and industry of the two countries in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5G and 6G, biotech, space and semiconductors.