Budget 2024: US-India Business Council lauds US and Indian govts for their focus on iCET sectors

As the interim budget for the financial year 2024-25 was rolled out on February 01, President of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) Atul Keshap lauded US and India governments for their focus on iCET sectors and budget. Atul Keshap said, “First of all, I think this is a very confident, very sober and very pro-growth budget by the government of India, and I think it signals a real sense of optimism about the economic growth of the country. It sends a very strong signal to investors about the constancy of government policy. So I think it`s very positive. And I congratulate the Finance Minister, her entire team and the government.” “So it actually details really nicely with iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology), which is the initiative on critical and emerging technologies that the two governments and the US chamber launched in January of 2023. So first, for instance, there`s a $12 billion fund to help develop these so-called sunrise sectors of deep tech and future tech. And there`s a lot of money as well on semiconductors. I think the government of India is showing great focus on artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other iCET sectors. I led an aerospace and defence mission last week, or rather this week, to Delhi, and we had really good and encouraging meetings. So I really applaud both the US and Indian governments for their focus on the iCET sectors and this budget. It proves that that focus is backed by real money,” he added.