The invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make a state visit to the US comes amid efforts to achieve a quantum leap in bilateral ties, with India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, and his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, tasked with launching a Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) initiative that officials suggest will top anything the two countries, long prone to mutual distrust, have achieved so far, including the civilian nuclear agreement of 2005.