Assessment of U.S.-Indian Science and Technology Relations: An Analytical Study of Past Performance and Future Prospects

摘要

For India and the United States, the consequences of their 30-year relationship in science and technology have been mixed. India has made significant progress toward its goal of becoming a major world industrial power, of which a substantial national capacity in science and technology has been perceived by Indian leaders and planners as an essential ingredient. But its socio-economic goals of greater equity and less poverty have remained largely unfulfilled. The US has made a significant contribution to the growth of the modern sector of the Indian economy through both government-supported science and technology programs and private sector technology flows, although the primary effort has been Indian, not foreign. This has enabled the US to maintain a modest measure of policy influence. But realizing the equity goals of the 'new directions' in US economic policy toward developing countries which emerged in the 1970s has been as elusive for the US in its relations with India as for India itself. For the future, US-Indian science and technology relations offer greater scope for genuine cooperation between two less unequal partners and an arena for increasing conflict as India's industrial capacity becomes more directly competitive with the US.