2024 · GS Paper 2 · Q9 · 10 marks
The West is fostering India as an alternative to reduce dependence on China's supply chain and as a strategic ally to counter China's political and economic dominance.' Explain this statement with examples.
In short
The West is cultivating India as a second manufacturing base and a strategic counterweight to reduce dependence on China, through electronics relocation, trusted supply-chain frameworks, the Quad and defence technology sharing. Apple now assembles roughly a fifth of its iPhones in India (2025).
Model answer
Ghissu Editorial · Verified 4 Oct 2026 · 290 words
Electronics relocation
Apple, through Foxconn and Tata Electronics, now assembles roughly a fifth of its iPhones in India (2025), aided by the Production Linked Incentive scheme.
Semiconductor bets
Micron's US$2.75 billion assembly and test plant at Sanand, Gujarat (2023), announced alongside the US-India iCET, places a chip-chain link outside East Asia.
Trusted-partner frameworks
The Supply Chain Resilience Initiative with Japan and Australia (2021), the IPEF supply-chain pact (2023) and the Minerals Security Partnership (2023) build chains around China.
Indo-Pacific balancing
The Quad, raised to leaders' summits in 2021, and the four-navy Malabar exercise give India a frontline role against Chinese coercion at sea.
Technology and corridors
The 2023 GE-HAL deal to co-produce F414 jet engines shares technology denied to China, and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (2023) offers an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Partnership, not alliance
India keeps strategic autonomy, buying Russian oil and sitting in BRICS and SCO, while US tariffs of up to 50% in 2025 showed the limits of Western courtship.
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Politics of Developed Countries3 questions
Asked in 3 of 14 sittings since 2013
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Question from the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2024 paper. Answer written by Ghissu's engine and checked against our editorial standards. Found an error? Tell us and we correct it within 48 hours.