India America Relations
India America relations have seen a remarkable transformation over the last decade. There is a broad political consensus across the political spectrum in both the countries to strengthen the India-America relations. The transformation of our bilateral relationship began with President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in March 2000. The process continued through President Bush’s tenure with the summit meetings in July 2005 in Washington D.C. and in March 2006 in New Delhi. The India America relations have further strengthened and the scope of our engagement has become more broad based under President Obama, who has characterized India-America relationship as one of the defining partnerships of 21st century.
The visit of Prime Minister to Washington from November 22-26, 2009 as the first State Guest of President Barack Obama reaffirmed the global strategic partnership between India and the United States. President Obama’s recent visit to India (Mumbai and Delhi) from November 6-9, 2010, has imparted greater momentum to our bilateral cooperation and has helped establish a long-term framework for India-America Strategic Partnership. The common ideals and complementary strengths of India and the United States of America provide a foundation for addressing the global challenges of the 21st century.
In the past few years, there have been close and frequent contacts at political and official levels and a wide-ranging dialogue on global, regional and bilateral issues between the two countries is in place. People to people and business ties have added further strength to our relationship. Major Areas of Cooperation A "Strategic Dialogue" was established in July 2009 during Secretary Clinton’s visit to India with the objective of strengthening our bilateral cooperation in five areas including Strategic Cooperation on nonproliferation, counter-terrorism and military; Energy and Climate Change; Education and Development on education and women’s empowerment; Economics, Trade and Agriculture on business, trade and food security; and Science and Technology, Health and Innovation on major technologies and global health challenges. The first round of this dialogue was held in Washington DC in June 2010. EAM led our delegation for this Dialogue. The next meeting of the Strategic Dialogue is planned to be held in New Delhi in the first half of 2011.
India America Counter-terrorism Cooperation
Cooperation in counter terrorism has seen a remarkable progress over the last few years. A new India-US Counter-Terrorism Cooperation Initiative was signed last year to expand collaboration on counter-terrorism, information sharing and capacity building. Separately functional level cooperation on counter Terrorism is being processed through a Joint Working Group (JWG on CT) that was established in January 2000. The 11th meeting of the JWG was held in Washington on 17 June 2009. A new Homeland Security was also announced during President Obama’s visit to further
(i) deepen operational cooperation, counter-terrorism technology transfers and capacity building.
(ii) India America Defense Cooperation : The ‘New Framework for India-US Defense Relationship’ was signed between the two sides on June 28, 2005 which has provided a new dynamism to the India-America defense ties. Under the Framework for Defense Cooperation, both sides have agreed to pursue mutually beneficial defense cooperation through the existing security dialogue, service-level exchanges, defense exercises and trade and technology transfer and collaboration. In recent years India has procured defense equipment worth about US $4 billion from the US including C130J aircraft, P8I maritime surveillance aircraft, and INS Jalashwa. Several other orders are in pipeline including orders for C17 Transport
aircraft.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited India in January 2009. Raksha Mantri has visited Washington recently from September 26-28, 2010. Apart from the Cabinet level exchange, there are exchanges between each of the Services, with regular joint exercises.
(iii) India America Civil Nuclear Initiative : The Civil Nuclear Initiative agreed to in the Joint Statement of 18 July, 2005 is a milestone in the development of bilateral relations.The bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement was finalized in July 2007 and signed in October 2008 by EAM and then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During the recent visit of President Obama, the two Governments announced completion of all steps to begin implementation of the Civil Nuclear Agreement. Indian and US companies are now working towards early commencement of commercial cooperation in this area.
(iv) India America Economic Relations : The growing economic partnership between the US and India has been one of the pillars of the transformed bilateral relationship. A new US Financial and Economic Partnership to strengthen bilateral engagement on macro-economic, financial, and investment-related issues was launched in New Delhi on 6th April 2010 between Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The Agreement on Framework for cooperation on Trade and Investment was signed during the visit of Minister for Commerce & Industry, Mr. Anand Sharma to USA on March 17, 2010 .India has emerged as a thriving market for US exports, which nearly tripled in value between 2004 and 2007. The upward trend has continued in 2008, though at a slower rate and declined in 2009 due to the global economic downturn. The total trade
during 2008 was US$43.4 billion (India’s exports to US –25.7 and US exports to India- 17.7) as compared to US$21.6 billion (15.5 + 6.1) in the year 2004. The total trade during January – August 2009 was US$24.4 billion (13.6bn + 10.8bn). Major US exports to India include aircraft and aviation-related products, fertilizers, other machinery, precious stones and metals, organic chemicals, optical and medical instruments. Major components of India’s export to the US include gems and jewelry, textiles, pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals, engineering goods and, since last year, iron & steel products.
The US is the third largest source of foreign direct investments in India. Cumulative FDI inflows from USA till July 2009 were $ 9.71 billion. The FDI inflows from USA to India increased from US $502 million in 2004-05 to US $1.80 billion in 2008-09.
The sectors attracting FDI from USA are Fuels (Power and Oil Refinery), Telecommunications, Electrical equipments (including computer software and electronics), Food Processing Industries and service sector. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, investments from India to US in 2006 were estimated at
around US$ 2 billion and rose sharply in 2007 to touch US$ 13 billion. In 2007-08 alone, an estimated US$ 10.25 billion was invested by Indian companies in the US. Consequently, by industry estimates, an additional 65,000 jobs were created in the US in diverse sectors (steel, chemicals, hotels, beverages, automobile). According to a report by FICCI, the number of disclosed deals involving acquisitions by Indian companies in USA during 2007-08 and 2008-09 were 55 and 24 respectively and the values were $4.432 billion and $960 million respectively. The most active sectors were IT and IT enabled services, followed by manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
(v) India America Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative :
As envisaged in the MoU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change, signed between India and US on November 24, 2009, an Agreement for Cooperation on Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center was signed between India and US during the visit of US President Barack Obama to India in November 2010. The Center aims to help accelerate development and more rapid deployment of critical technologies for renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean coal, including carbon capture and storage, and other areas of clean energy that are needed to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, diversify energy supply and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. The areas of research for the Center will include but are not limited to (a) energy efficiency of buildings; (b) smart grids; (c) unconventional natural gas; (d) second-generation biofuels; (e) clean coal, including carbon capture and storage; (f) an integrated gasification and combined cycle; and (f) solar energy. It has also been announced that both Government of India and the US Government would provide US$5 million each per annum for next five years towards their share of the research cost under the Agreement while an equivalent cost will be borne by the Consortia which will carry out the research.
(vi) India America Space Cooperation
The two sides have had long history of cooperation in Civil Space arena. A bilateral Joint Working Group on Civil Space Cooperation has been established as forum for discussions on joint activities in space. India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-I carried two NASA payloads - a Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar to map ice deposits in the moon's surface and a Moon Mineralogy Maper to assess mineral resources of the Moon. The Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) signed with the US on July 20, 2009 in New Delhi during the visit of US Secretary of State, has opened fresh opportunities for the launch of non-commercial US satellites and satellites with US components on Indian launch vehicles.
(vii) India-America Cooperation in Education sector : India-US Education Dialogue was announced by India and US Governments on July 20, 2009 during the visit of US Secretary of State to India. Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD), Shri Kapil Sibal, led a delegation to New York and Washington during 25-31, October 2009 with a view to explore partnerships with top US Universities for establishing fourteen new Innovation Universities in India.
Both Governments have launched the “Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative” in November 2009 with funding from both sides to increase university linkages and junior faculty development exchanges between US and Indian universities.
On July 4, 2008, India and the US signed a new bilateral Fulbright Agreement, that supersedes the Fulbright Agreement operating since 1950 with U.S. funding. Under the Agreement, the Government of India and the United States will implement the scholarship programme as full partners with scholarship amount of US$5 million awarded annually. This amount has now been increased to US $7.06 million from the financial year 2010-11 and raised the total number of scholarships from 158 to 238.
To further boost our cooperation in this field, the two countries will convene a bilateral Higher Education Summit, chaired by senior officials from both countries in 2011.
(viii) India America Cooperation in Science & Technology : India and the US signed a Science & Technology Agreement on October 17, 2005 that provides for joint research and training, and the establishment of public-private partnerships. A $30 million Science & Technology Endowment for various related projects was established during the visit of Secretary of State to India on 20 July 2009.
The cooperation in S&T is guided by a bilateral Science and Technology Forum that
held its 11th Meeting in 2009
(ix) India America Cooperation in the Health Sector : During the visit of Secretary of State Clinton to India during July 2009, a “Health Dialogue” was established between the two countries, which forms part of the “Indo-US Strategic Dialogue.” Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mr.Ghulam Nabi Azad visited USA from 21-28 June 2010 and met US Secretary for Health and Human Services Mrs.Kathleen Sebelius on June 25, to set into motion the dialogue on health.
On the US side National Institute of Health (NIH) has ongoing collaborative programmes with DBT, DST & Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
(x) India America Cultural ties.
Indian music, dance, art and literature are widely appreciated in the United States. Kennedy Centre in collaboration with Indian Council for Cultural Relations [ICCR] is organizing the “Festival of India’” in March 2011 focusing on established as well as emerging artists and art forms including all of the performing arts. Apart from live shows, exhibitions and lecture-cum-demonstrations, the Kennedy Center will also showcase the Festival of India through educational programmes that reaches into schools through satellite and internet. As in the past, the Embassy organized events marking major Indian festivals, which were well attended, including by American nationals.
India - America People-2-people Ties
The 2.7 million strong Indian American community in the United States has been growing in affluence and political strength and has developed into a force for closer and stronger ties between their adopted country and their nation of origin. The community has played a significant role in the successful passage of the Henry J. Hyde Act by the U.S. Congress and eventually signing of the Agreement for Cooperation between the Government of India and the Government of the United States of America concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. A number of Indian Americans are occupying high level posts of Governor, Senators/Representatives of State Legislatures and in the Federal Administration. Their active cooperation and interaction at different levels with the Government of India as well as with the U.S. Administration provides a bridge between the two countries.
The visit of Prime Minister to Washington from November 22-26, 2009 as the first State Guest of President Barack Obama reaffirmed the global strategic partnership between India and the United States. President Obama’s recent visit to India (Mumbai and Delhi) from November 6-9, 2010, has imparted greater momentum to our bilateral cooperation and has helped establish a long-term framework for India-America Strategic Partnership. The common ideals and complementary strengths of India and the United States of America provide a foundation for addressing the global challenges of the 21st century.
In the past few years, there have been close and frequent contacts at political and official levels and a wide-ranging dialogue on global, regional and bilateral issues between the two countries is in place. People to people and business ties have added further strength to our relationship. Major Areas of Cooperation A "Strategic Dialogue" was established in July 2009 during Secretary Clinton’s visit to India with the objective of strengthening our bilateral cooperation in five areas including Strategic Cooperation on nonproliferation, counter-terrorism and military; Energy and Climate Change; Education and Development on education and women’s empowerment; Economics, Trade and Agriculture on business, trade and food security; and Science and Technology, Health and Innovation on major technologies and global health challenges. The first round of this dialogue was held in Washington DC in June 2010. EAM led our delegation for this Dialogue. The next meeting of the Strategic Dialogue is planned to be held in New Delhi in the first half of 2011.
India America Counter-terrorism Cooperation
Cooperation in counter terrorism has seen a remarkable progress over the last few years. A new India-US Counter-Terrorism Cooperation Initiative was signed last year to expand collaboration on counter-terrorism, information sharing and capacity building. Separately functional level cooperation on counter Terrorism is being processed through a Joint Working Group (JWG on CT) that was established in January 2000. The 11th meeting of the JWG was held in Washington on 17 June 2009. A new Homeland Security was also announced during President Obama’s visit to further
(i) deepen operational cooperation, counter-terrorism technology transfers and capacity building.
(ii) India America Defense Cooperation : The ‘New Framework for India-US Defense Relationship’ was signed between the two sides on June 28, 2005 which has provided a new dynamism to the India-America defense ties. Under the Framework for Defense Cooperation, both sides have agreed to pursue mutually beneficial defense cooperation through the existing security dialogue, service-level exchanges, defense exercises and trade and technology transfer and collaboration. In recent years India has procured defense equipment worth about US $4 billion from the US including C130J aircraft, P8I maritime surveillance aircraft, and INS Jalashwa. Several other orders are in pipeline including orders for C17 Transport
aircraft.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited India in January 2009. Raksha Mantri has visited Washington recently from September 26-28, 2010. Apart from the Cabinet level exchange, there are exchanges between each of the Services, with regular joint exercises.
(iii) India America Civil Nuclear Initiative : The Civil Nuclear Initiative agreed to in the Joint Statement of 18 July, 2005 is a milestone in the development of bilateral relations.The bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement was finalized in July 2007 and signed in October 2008 by EAM and then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. During the recent visit of President Obama, the two Governments announced completion of all steps to begin implementation of the Civil Nuclear Agreement. Indian and US companies are now working towards early commencement of commercial cooperation in this area.
(iv) India America Economic Relations : The growing economic partnership between the US and India has been one of the pillars of the transformed bilateral relationship. A new US Financial and Economic Partnership to strengthen bilateral engagement on macro-economic, financial, and investment-related issues was launched in New Delhi on 6th April 2010 between Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The Agreement on Framework for cooperation on Trade and Investment was signed during the visit of Minister for Commerce & Industry, Mr. Anand Sharma to USA on March 17, 2010 .India has emerged as a thriving market for US exports, which nearly tripled in value between 2004 and 2007. The upward trend has continued in 2008, though at a slower rate and declined in 2009 due to the global economic downturn. The total trade
during 2008 was US$43.4 billion (India’s exports to US –25.7 and US exports to India- 17.7) as compared to US$21.6 billion (15.5 + 6.1) in the year 2004. The total trade during January – August 2009 was US$24.4 billion (13.6bn + 10.8bn). Major US exports to India include aircraft and aviation-related products, fertilizers, other machinery, precious stones and metals, organic chemicals, optical and medical instruments. Major components of India’s export to the US include gems and jewelry, textiles, pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals, engineering goods and, since last year, iron & steel products.
The US is the third largest source of foreign direct investments in India. Cumulative FDI inflows from USA till July 2009 were $ 9.71 billion. The FDI inflows from USA to India increased from US $502 million in 2004-05 to US $1.80 billion in 2008-09.
The sectors attracting FDI from USA are Fuels (Power and Oil Refinery), Telecommunications, Electrical equipments (including computer software and electronics), Food Processing Industries and service sector. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, investments from India to US in 2006 were estimated at
around US$ 2 billion and rose sharply in 2007 to touch US$ 13 billion. In 2007-08 alone, an estimated US$ 10.25 billion was invested by Indian companies in the US. Consequently, by industry estimates, an additional 65,000 jobs were created in the US in diverse sectors (steel, chemicals, hotels, beverages, automobile). According to a report by FICCI, the number of disclosed deals involving acquisitions by Indian companies in USA during 2007-08 and 2008-09 were 55 and 24 respectively and the values were $4.432 billion and $960 million respectively. The most active sectors were IT and IT enabled services, followed by manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
(v) India America Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative :
As envisaged in the MoU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change, signed between India and US on November 24, 2009, an Agreement for Cooperation on Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center was signed between India and US during the visit of US President Barack Obama to India in November 2010. The Center aims to help accelerate development and more rapid deployment of critical technologies for renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean coal, including carbon capture and storage, and other areas of clean energy that are needed to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, diversify energy supply and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. The areas of research for the Center will include but are not limited to (a) energy efficiency of buildings; (b) smart grids; (c) unconventional natural gas; (d) second-generation biofuels; (e) clean coal, including carbon capture and storage; (f) an integrated gasification and combined cycle; and (f) solar energy. It has also been announced that both Government of India and the US Government would provide US$5 million each per annum for next five years towards their share of the research cost under the Agreement while an equivalent cost will be borne by the Consortia which will carry out the research.
(vi) India America Space Cooperation
The two sides have had long history of cooperation in Civil Space arena. A bilateral Joint Working Group on Civil Space Cooperation has been established as forum for discussions on joint activities in space. India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-I carried two NASA payloads - a Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar to map ice deposits in the moon's surface and a Moon Mineralogy Maper to assess mineral resources of the Moon. The Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) signed with the US on July 20, 2009 in New Delhi during the visit of US Secretary of State, has opened fresh opportunities for the launch of non-commercial US satellites and satellites with US components on Indian launch vehicles.
(vii) India-America Cooperation in Education sector : India-US Education Dialogue was announced by India and US Governments on July 20, 2009 during the visit of US Secretary of State to India. Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD), Shri Kapil Sibal, led a delegation to New York and Washington during 25-31, October 2009 with a view to explore partnerships with top US Universities for establishing fourteen new Innovation Universities in India.
Both Governments have launched the “Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative” in November 2009 with funding from both sides to increase university linkages and junior faculty development exchanges between US and Indian universities.
On July 4, 2008, India and the US signed a new bilateral Fulbright Agreement, that supersedes the Fulbright Agreement operating since 1950 with U.S. funding. Under the Agreement, the Government of India and the United States will implement the scholarship programme as full partners with scholarship amount of US$5 million awarded annually. This amount has now been increased to US $7.06 million from the financial year 2010-11 and raised the total number of scholarships from 158 to 238.
To further boost our cooperation in this field, the two countries will convene a bilateral Higher Education Summit, chaired by senior officials from both countries in 2011.
(viii) India America Cooperation in Science & Technology : India and the US signed a Science & Technology Agreement on October 17, 2005 that provides for joint research and training, and the establishment of public-private partnerships. A $30 million Science & Technology Endowment for various related projects was established during the visit of Secretary of State to India on 20 July 2009.
The cooperation in S&T is guided by a bilateral Science and Technology Forum that
held its 11th Meeting in 2009
(ix) India America Cooperation in the Health Sector : During the visit of Secretary of State Clinton to India during July 2009, a “Health Dialogue” was established between the two countries, which forms part of the “Indo-US Strategic Dialogue.” Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mr.Ghulam Nabi Azad visited USA from 21-28 June 2010 and met US Secretary for Health and Human Services Mrs.Kathleen Sebelius on June 25, to set into motion the dialogue on health.
On the US side National Institute of Health (NIH) has ongoing collaborative programmes with DBT, DST & Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
(x) India America Cultural ties.
Indian music, dance, art and literature are widely appreciated in the United States. Kennedy Centre in collaboration with Indian Council for Cultural Relations [ICCR] is organizing the “Festival of India’” in March 2011 focusing on established as well as emerging artists and art forms including all of the performing arts. Apart from live shows, exhibitions and lecture-cum-demonstrations, the Kennedy Center will also showcase the Festival of India through educational programmes that reaches into schools through satellite and internet. As in the past, the Embassy organized events marking major Indian festivals, which were well attended, including by American nationals.
India - America People-2-people Ties
The 2.7 million strong Indian American community in the United States has been growing in affluence and political strength and has developed into a force for closer and stronger ties between their adopted country and their nation of origin. The community has played a significant role in the successful passage of the Henry J. Hyde Act by the U.S. Congress and eventually signing of the Agreement for Cooperation between the Government of India and the Government of the United States of America concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. A number of Indian Americans are occupying high level posts of Governor, Senators/Representatives of State Legislatures and in the Federal Administration. Their active cooperation and interaction at different levels with the Government of India as well as with the U.S. Administration provides a bridge between the two countries.
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