Exciting developments are underway as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has given a positive nod for collaboration with the United States that is termed the ‘Innovation Handshake.’ This strategic partnership is set to usher in a new era of collaboration between Indian and American startups. It is to focus on boosting ventures in Critical & Emerging Technologies (CET).
The roots of this collaborative effort trace back to the 5th India-U.S. Commercial Dialogue held in March 2023 during the visit of US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo. Things got even more exciting when they started a special team called the ‘TIIG Working Group.’ This team is all about helping startups that want to do cool things in CET. So, it is like a super helpful group making sure startups working on important tech stuff get the support they need.
The ‘Innovation Handshake’ made headlines after a Joint Statement in June 2023 by President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, outlining plans to connect the dynamic startup ecosystems of both nations. Their main goals are to make things easier for businesses by solving rules and challenges, help create new and cool ideas, and make sure more jobs pop up, especially in important and new technologies.
Formalizing this collaboration, a Government-to-Government (G2G) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on November 14, 2023. This big agreement has lots of cool teamwork plans, like special events called Innovation Handshake, private meetings, fun hackathons and programs for “Open Innovation.” It is like a bunch of ways for everyone to work together and come up with awesome ideas.
Looking ahead, two significant events are scheduled for early 2024 as part of this collaboration. The first is an investment forum aimed at assisting U.S. and Indian startups in bringing their innovative ideas and products to market. The next cool thing is a big competition in Silicon Valley. Startups from both countries can share their ideas and techie stuff to tackle big worldwide problems. It is like a friendly showdown of smart ideas.
