‘Big win for India’: ICT imports to protect domestic industry and boost tech capability, says Piyush Goyal

Union Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said India’s approach to information and communication technology (ICT) product access is focused on safeguarding domestic interests while ensuring the country secures critical technologies needed for economic and national security priorities.Speaking in Delhi, Goyal said policy direction in the sector is aimed at protecting India from countries that engage in unfair trade practices, including selling products below manufacturing cost levels. “That is more directed towards safeguarding our interest from countries which are known to do predatory pricing or supply goods at irrational prices, which are even sometimes lower than the cost of manufacture in India,” he said in a press conference on Saturday.He emphasised that India’s technology engagement with countries following fair trade principles, particularly advanced economies (referring to US), should be seen as complementary rather than competitive.“Countries which have fair play and certainly and it is important that we all understand this, a country like the United States of America, where the cost of labour is probably 50 times the cost of labour in India, a country like the United States of America with a per capita income of $90,000 nearly, versus India which is at $3,000 per capita. There is certainly no competition. We actually complement each other,” Goyal said.The minister said access to advanced ICT products is crucial for India’s strategic and economic objectives, especially as the country expands its digital and artificial intelligence capabilities.“For our national security, we will certainly need many ICT products. For example, NVIDIA chips. We will certainly need AI equipment. We will certainly need data centres if we have to remain abreast with what is happening in the world, if our IT companies have to reorient themselves to start becoming more in tune with the needs of the world,” he said.Highlighting ongoing cooperation with the United States in this space, Goyal described access to such technologies as beneficial for India’s technology ecosystem.“It is a big win for India that America has agreed to provide us all these ICT products which are the need of the hour in our country,” he added.India and the United States issued a joint statement on Saturday detailing their recently announced trade pact, under which tariffs on Indian products entering the US will be reduced from 50% to 18%.