The message in India's late entry to US-led groupings, Pg4

Key Highlights:

• India was belatedly included in the US-led Pax Silica initiative, designed to counter China's dominance in strategic technology sectors.
• Pax Silica aims to build a secure supply chain for critical minerals, energy inputs, advanced manufacturing, and semiconductors.
• The initial Pax Silica Summit in December included Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Netherlands, UK, Israel, UAE, and Australia.
• India's late entry, similar to the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), highlights the need to demonstrate tangible contributions to such initiatives.

Detailed Insights:

• Pax Silica seeks to reduce "coercive dependencies" and protect materials crucial for Artificial Intelligence (AI), ensuring aligned nations can develop transformative technologies.
• The initiative aims to secure access across the AI stack, from minerals and chips to security and logistics, addressing concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities.
• India's exclusion from the initial list was due to perceived lack of critical edge technologies, access to resources, and processing capacity in targeted sectors.
• Measures under Pax Silica include joint ventures, protection of sensitive technologies, and building trusted technology ecosystems, aligning with India's strategic interests.
• China's dominance in the global critical minerals market poses a shared challenge, potentially attracting American investments to India but also exposing it to coercion.
• India is trying to position itself as a spoke in the global supply chain realignment as companies diversify away from China.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Pax Silica: A US-led initiative to build a secure supply chain for AI and semiconductor technologies, countering China's dominance.
• Minerals Security Partnership (MSP): A US-led strategic initiative focused on securing supply chains for critical minerals.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): The development of computer systems able to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.