New Delhi [India], April 29 (ANI): Noting that India’s strength lies in services and technology, economist Danny Quah on Wednesday said the country can emerge as a “massive architect” in artificial intelligence, with opportunities in the sector being “essentially unbounded.”
Speaking exclusively to ANI, Quah, professor of economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, also said India can play a key role in building coalitions of like-minded countries to address what he described as the “disruptive” economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
When asked about India’s future and where it should focus, Quah said the country should leverage its strengths in technology, high-quality services, and English-language capabilities. “The opportunity in technology, especially AI, is essentially unbounded… India can be a massive actor in that space,” he said.
Commenting on Trump’s tariffs on India and other countries, Quah said the policies are driven by the belief that the United States has been “taken advantage of” by the rest of the world and must now “get back” at others. “A lot of his supporters endorse these policies because he crafts them in that way,” he said, adding that most neutral observers believe the U.S. has, in fact, “benefited hugely from the world that it itself created over the last eight decades.”
He noted that while the United States had long warned against other powers being “revisionist” and disrupting a rules-based global order, “it turns out that it’s America that’s doing the revisionism.” According to Quah, other major economies are adopting a wait-and-watch approach amid the uncertainty created by Washington’s policies.
Quah further said the U.S. shift toward protectionism is not entirely new, tracing it back to figures such as Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln. He noted that the past eight decades of relatively open trade may have been an “aberration” in the broader trajectory of American economic thinking.
“The question now is whether America will continue returning to that earlier path of protectionism and isolationism, or recognize that being part of the international community has made it stronger,” he said, adding that there is still no clear answer on the direction the U.S. will take.
On how India should respond, Quah outlined three possible strategies—alignment, acquiescence, and mitigation—stating that blind alignment with the U.S. may not suit a country of India’s size and interests. He said acquiescence could offer temporary strategic space but emphasized that mitigation, through building multilateral coalitions and cooperative systems, would be a more sustainable path.
“India is large enough to help build systems that work for it, alongside others,” he said, stressing that New Delhi could play a leading role in shaping a more balanced global order through “coalitions of the willing.” (ANI)
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