America had lot of things to learn from India, especially from the Indian banking sectors, said Beth Payne, US Consul General in Kolkata.
Addressing an interactive sessions organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, on the US Economic Policy, Payne said, “We have a lot of things to learn from India especially from the Indian banking sector, which has remained conservative and relatively insulated from global turmoil. In the field of medicine, solar and clean energy where lots of cutting edge developments have taken place in Bengal as well as India. We are looking forward to more partnerships and exchanges.”
"Our new economic policy under Obama administration revolves around four maxims : increased spending and credit flow to boost growth, building on private trust and public regulation and achieving a right balance between these two, trade liberalisation, openness and developing more market oriented policies," she said.
The US government's new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is an initiative which entails injecting $787 billion into the US economy over the next two years, creating or saving about three million jobs while investing in priorities like healthcare, energy and education that will kick start economic growth.
Energy conservation is a major focus of the Act. "We hope to double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. And since India is now on the cutting edge of developing new alternative forms of energy, we will be looking to India for ideas and partnerships," Payne said. With over 90,000 Indians studying in the US, the country is looking forward to more collaboration between Indian and American universities so that there can be more student exchange programmes.
“We will build and facilitate as many partnerships as we can. We are looking forward to working with India to develop increased opportunities for US universities to provide quality educational opportunities to Indian students as well as increasing the number of US students studying in India and vice versa,” she said.
Payne pointed out that the ongoing recession was not a common one. "It is different because it was not a downturn caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle, but by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main street. Banks made loans without concern for whether borrowers could repay them and alluded responsibility," she said.