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Washington: A leading
US think tank has proposed three key focussed policy initiatives -
a bilateral investment treaty, accelerated defence trade and
educational collaboration - to unleash the full potential of the
India-US relationship.
Given the current combination of economic and political
compulsions, any new initiative in US-India relations may need to
wait until among other things the US presidential election, Karl
Inderfurth, Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),
acknowledged.
But these goals are "achievable", Inderfurth, who served as US
assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs during
President Bill Clinton's second term, told IANS in an interview.
Discounting "concerns expressed by some that the US-India
relationship is at rest or stalled" as "sort of exaggerated" he
said looking at the high-level attention given to it in both the
capitals, "I remain very enthusiastic about where the bilateral
relationship is headed."
"Over the last decade US-India relationship has come a great
distance during a short period of time and our view is much more
can be done to unleash the full potential of that relationship,
starting with the economic trade and commercial areas," Inderfurth
said.
"There is no question that even though US-India trade overall has
surpassed $100 billion a year for the first time, much more can be
done," he said outlining the role of Bangalore based Wadhwani
Foundation, set up by Silicon Valley (California)-based
entrepreneur Dr. Romesh Wadhwani.
"That's why we are focussing on that particular initiative here at
the Wadhwani Chair that is to see the two countries move as
expeditiously as possible on concluding a bilateral investment
treaty (BIT)."
"I think everyone sees this as a potentially achievable goal right
now as both governments have placed our economic relationship at
the top of our agenda," he said.
Inderfurth said the Wadhwani chair can "contribute to that with
pushing forward a good solid analysis of BIT and what that will
mean to both countries" and working with others, including the
US-India Business Council (USIBC), the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII).
Another initiative is a report prepared by CSIS on "US-India
Defence Trade: Opportunities for Deepening the Partnership."
The report analyses the current state of bilateral defence trade
and provides a series of recommendations for both the US and India
in order to help them "unlock the full potential" of their defence
partnership.
"We believe that overall defence relationship between the US and
India is an important component of our security for both countries
and one part of that is defence trade, which is a concrete
manifestation of the change in our relationship," said Inderfurth
who has penned the foreword of the report.
"Yet another initiative that is showing great traction and
interest is in the whole area of US-India educational cooperation
especially with respect to community colleges," he said, noting
that it had become the focal point of discussion, including at the
recent US-India educational dialogue here.
This is one area that the Wadhwani Foundation and the Wadhwani
Chair are pursuing, Inderfurth said, as "we see the connection of
US-India educational collaboration and skills training
collaboration as one of the key means of advancing and
accelerating India's economic growth."
Noting that India's under 25 population made up half of India's
overall 1.2 billion population, he said: "This could either prove
to be a demographic benefit (with education and skills training)
or demographic disaster (without it)."
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
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