India is yet to roll out a 5G network in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday began his engagements in the US with a "productive interaction" with President and CEO of Qualcomm Cristiano E Amon spanning 5G, drones and semiconductors during which he highlighted the vast business opportunities in India.
PM Modi, who arrived in Washington on Wednesday on an official visit to the US during which he will hold the first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris, held a one-on-one meeting with Mr Amon.
Mr Amon expressed interest in working with India on ambitious digital transformation programmes including in 5G, the public WiFi project PM WANI and others, news agency PTI reported. He also expressed interest partnering with India to work in the field of semiconductors.
PM Modi said India has contributed to 5G standards and urged Qualcomm to actively participate as they did in case of the GPS-like navigation system NAVIK, PTI reported, quoting sources. He also spoke about the new liberalised drone policy and said that Qualcomm could take part in new opportunities in the new emerging market
"We are so proud of our partnership (with India),” Mr Amon told Doordarshan in an interview after his meeting with the Prime Minister. "We talked about 5G and the celebration of 5G. We talked about an incredible opportunity to advance the industry not only domestically in India but India as an export of technology,” he said in response to a question.
India, he said, could be an important destination for the semiconductor industry, subject to the availability of infrastructure.
"We talked about semiconductors, which is kind of an important topic of conversation. And we talked about the opportunity to continue to build an incredible mobile ecosystem that is developing in India. We are very pleased with the conversations and we're very, very happy with everything we're doing together with India,” Mr Amon said.
Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that they discussed recent electronics and telecom manufacturing Production-Linked Incentive schemes; and measures to strengthen the innovation ecosystem.
"During the meeting, they discussed investment opportunities offered in India''s telecommunications and electronics sector. This included the recently launched Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) as well as developments in the semiconductor supply chain in India," the ministry said in a statement.
The meeting with chip giant Mr Amon assumes significance, given India's concerns about making its upcoming 5G technology network secure.
The San Diego-based company creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology.
One of the biggest names in 3G, 4G, and next-generation wireless technology innovations for more than 30 years, Qualcomm is now playing a big role in 5G with a vast array of products spanning across automotive, computing, and Internet of Things industries.
Ahead of his meeting with the business leaders, PM Modi had said he would interact with leading CEOs to highlight economic opportunities in India.
PM Modi also held one-on-one meetings with CEOs of Adobe, First Solar, General Atomics and Blackstone. Two of them are Indian-Americans - Shantanu Narayen from Adobe and Vivek Lall from General Atomics.