Jaishankar: Quad is here to stay

New Delhi, Dec 14: The Quad is a very contemporary arrangement having an open-minded and creative approach that has helped it in moving “very effectively” in addressing various problems, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

Talking about the importance of critical technologies and India’s journey in acquiring them in the backdrop of the Indo-US nuclear deal around 15 years back, he said though Washington discovered a certain value in ties with New Delhi, there were others who were “dogmatic” in their views of the world and found it hard to do this.

Jaishankar was asked to comment at an interactive session at the Global Technology Summit 2021 that the perception that existed before the inking of the nuclear deal was that the US was reluctant to share critical technologies but later it came out that the problem was somewhere else (China).

The minister spoke about India’s technology-driven transition and particularly highlighted the way it handled the challenges that confronted the country following the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, he stressed the need for enhancing India’s domestic supply chains and economic growth with a focus on the creation of jobs.

“People talk about supply chains. I would say, first of all, look at your domestic supply chains that should be your first responsibility. So we need to continuously strengthen our domestic supply chain,” Jaishankar said.

“We cannot have economic growth without these strengths and without commensurate employment growth,” he said.

Jaishankar said the focus should be on education, skill development, startups, creating greater employment and fostering a climate for the growth of technology. –(PTI)