'India's technological development is great for the world'

 India's technological development is not only great for the world, but also poses some interesting challenges to the US, a top Indian-American Pentagon official has said.

"You know, what's happening in India to me is part of this much broader globalisation of both technology and technical capability, which I think is great for the world and poses some interesting challenges for the United States," Arati Prabhakar, Director Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said.

"It also poses some great opportunities," Prabhakar told reporters while briefing them on the working of DARPA, the key agency that leads Pentagon in researching into leading-edge technologies.

DARPA's objective is a new generation of technology for national security, Prabhakar said.

"Today we're building a future in which our war fighters can use cyber tools as tactical weapons that fully integrated in the kinetic fight," she said.

"We are building a new generation of electronic warfare that will leapfrog what others around the world are doing with globally available technology," she said.

"We're also building a new suite of technologies for position navigation and timing so that our people and our platforms won't continue to be dangerously reliant on GPS as they are today," she said.

DARPA, she said, is also building new approaches to space and to robotics to advance platforms, advance weapon systems.

"We are building a new foundation of emerging technologies in software and electronics and materials but also today new technologies that emerge from the biological sciences," Prabhakar said.