Why in the News?
The Congress party recently criticised the Prime Minister over India’s exclusion from the United States led strategic initiative known as Pax Silica, citing a perceived downturn in India US relations.
About Pax Silica Initiative
- Pax Silica is a US led strategic initiative aimed at building a secure, resilient and innovation driven global silicon supply chain.
• The initiative covers the entire value chain from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, artificial intelligence infrastructure and logistics.
• The term Pax is derived from Latin, meaning peace, stability and long term prosperity.
• Silica refers to the compound refined into silicon, a foundational element for computer chips that power AI and advanced digital technologies.
• The initiative seeks to reduce coercive dependencies, protect critical materials and capabilities essential for AI, and enable trusted nations to develop and deploy emerging technologies at scale.
Member Countries
- Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Israel, United Arab Emirates and Australia
Core Objectives
- Jointly address vulnerabilities and opportunities in AI related supply chains.
• Cooperation in critical minerals, semiconductor design, fabrication and packaging.
• Strengthen logistics, transportation, compute infrastructure and energy grids.
• Promote new joint ventures and strategic co investment opportunities.
• Protect sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure from undue access or control by countries of concern.
• Build trusted technology ecosystems including ICT systems, fibre optic cables, data centres, foundational AI models and applications.
Significance for Prelims
- Focuses on strategic technology security rather than a formal treaty.
• Closely linked to semiconductor and AI geopolitics.
• Reflects US efforts to align technology supply chains among trusted partners.
| With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (2020)
(1) Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units (2) Create meaningful short stories and songs (3) Disease diagnosis (4) Text-to-Speech Conversion (5) Wireless transmission of electrical energy Select the correct answer using the code given below: (a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only (b) 1, 3 and 4 only (c) 2, 4 and 5 only (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 |
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
