February 17, 2021
This article is a part of
Agenda 2021, an edited series where experts provide ideas for strengthening U.S.-India and Europe-India cooperation in five different policy areas. It is part of GMF’s India Trilateral Forum, conducted in partnership with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation.
India is an increasingly pivotal actor in the deluge of technology-centered coalitions and partnerships. It is part of minilateral groupings like the India-Australia-Japan Supply Chain Resilience Initiative, “values-driven” groupings like the proposed D10 club of democracies on technology, and norms-shaping groupings like the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence. Its inclusion would appear to be natural: It remains a democracy that supports a rules-based international order. India has rapidly emerged as a major electronics manufacturer, and it is an attractive market for digital products, with between 800 million to 1 billion projected internet users by 2025. It has also built a reputation for bold digital projects, like the bid to enroll its billion-plus population under the national biometric ID Aadhaar and the IndiaStack project that is working on full-stack application programming interfaces for India’s digital infrastructure.