For years, Indian ministers have brought a message to American investors – we need you.
Speaking at the 35th anniversary of the US-India Business Council here , External Affairs Minister S M Krishna cited examples ranging from Titan watches that reportedly impressed even the Swiss, and a low-cost mobile banking system developed by the State Bank of India, to deliver a message to the American capital: You need us.
Pointing out that 200 of the top Fortune 500 companies have R&D bases in India, Krishna talked up India as an ideal destination for US companies pursuing innovation at low costs.
The minister was here for the inaugural India-US Strategic Dialogue. At times, the annual convention of the USIBC itself seemed an extension of the dialogue, as other Indian ministers, as well as their US counterparts, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, used the forum to talk about exchanges in their respective fields.
The Obama administration views the strategic dialogue as the next milestone in the India-US bilateral relationship after the civilian nuclear agreement. But, what of the earlier milestone? Krishna assured the USIBC that the two countries were “well within agreed timelines” on implementing the agreement and said the Indian government was committed to putting a liability regime in place.
Even as the Obama administration was trying to put its stamp on the bilateral equation, a few players from the previous regime, including former US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns were watching with interest.
Schwab was a frequent adversary of former Commerce Minister Kamal Nath at many forums around the world as the two officials traded arguments over the Doha round, US agricultural subsidies and Indian access for US farm goods among other issues. Schwab laughed off the suggestion that the sizzle had gone out of trade talks between the two countries as their respective counterparts, Ron Kirk and Anand Sharma, generated less heat and fewer headlines. She called Obama’s trade policy a “work in progress” and said both sides are hampered by not having a more proactive trade policy at present.
The differences on global trade structures had clearly not hurt bilateral trade – as outgoing USIBC Chair and PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi pointed out in her speech, India-US trade has doubled in the past three years. Her successor Terry McGraw, President and CEO of McGraw Hill Companies, noted US President Barack Obama’s target of doubling US exports in five years, and argued that India would be a good market to focus on, given its growing middle class and young population.
Amidst the enthusiasm there was some frustration as well. Sylvester Fernandez, Senior VP of Maxam Industries, complained on the sidelines of the event that it took six months to get approvals for his company that wants to bring affordable and quick solutions to mass housing in India. He believes there’s too much bureaucracy and corruption, saying, “Indian bureaucrats are trying to play mind games with us.”
But, on the eve of the inaugural strategic dialogue, the mood was largely positive. And even as Krishna struck a curious note in his keynote address by referring to his student days in the US during the “Camelot era” as the John F Kennedy administration of the early 1960s is sometimes referred to, his audience was mostly making plans for 50 years into the future.
