S. Krishnan, secretary of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), sat down in Washington with U.S. Under Secretary of State Jacob S. Helberg to talk about chips, artificial intelligence and the minerals both depend on.
The Embassy of India in Washington announced the meeting in a post on X on Thursday. Krishnan met Helberg “to deepen bilateral technological cooperation,” the Embassy said. A second line in the post listed what they covered: “avenues for cooperation in building diversified and trusted supply chains, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing, AI adoption and securing access to critical minerals.”
The post did not describe any agreement.
Critical minerals are increasingly seen as necessary for advanced manufacturing, clean energy technologies and other strategic industries, and the two officials discussed ways to secure access to them. The talks come as India and the United States expand work on critical and emerging technologies. Both say they want sturdier supply chains and less dependence on single suppliers in sensitive sectors.
The talent question
Earlier in June, Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, spoke about people rather than plants. He said the global semiconductor industry is short of nearly one million professionals, and that India could step in as a leading supplier of skilled talent.
Vaishnaw valued the industry at around $800 billion today and expects it to pass $1 trillion within a year. “By 2032, around one million jobs are expected to emerge in the semiconductor sector globally. At the same time, the industry is facing a shortage of nearly one million skilled professionals,” he said.
