Powell reiterated her country's stand that the US sees India as its leading strategic partner, and said Washington is keen on taking this relationship further.
She said the India-US ties are firmly grounded on a set of shared democratic values, and an increasingly-shared strategic vision on both the opportunities that can promote these values, as well as the threats that can undermine them.
She told the students that new opportunities in the area of education and research are being jointly explored by both the countries.
Women, who earlier had very less representation, now constitute 40 per cent of the student base at the institute, Singh said.