New Delhi [India], April 29 (ANI): Noting India’s strengths in services and technology, economist Danny Quah said the country can emerge as a “massive architect” in artificial intelligence, with opportunities that are “essentially unbounded.”
Quah, Professor in Economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, told ANI India 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.
On US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Quah said the policies are driven by the belief that the United States has been “taken advantage of” and must now “get back” at others, a framing that wins support among many of his backers. He added that most neutral observers believe the US has in fact “benefited hugely from the world that it itself created over the last eight decades.”
Quah observed that while the US 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.” He said other major economies are adopting a wait-and-watch approach amid uncertainty generated by Washington’s moves.
Tracing the US tilt toward protectionism to historical figures like Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln, Quah suggested the past eight decades of relatively open trade may have been an “aberration” in a longer American trajectory. Whether the US will return to protectionism and isolationism or recognise that international engagement strengthened it remains unclear.
On how India should respond, Quah outlined three strategies—alignment, acquiescence and mitigation—warning that blind alignment with the US may not suit a country of India’s size and interests. Acquiescence could offer temporary strategic space, but mitigation—building multilateral coalitions and cooperative systems—would be more sustainable.
“India is large enough to help build systems that work for it, alongside others,” he said, urging New Delhi to play a leading role in shaping a more balanced global order through “coalitions of the willing.” (ANI)
