|
THE NATION:
INDO-US RELATIONS
Good
Gets Better
Vajpayee's
promises in the US and commitments by GE and Microsoft in India take business
ties to a new high
By
Rohit Saran
Political
India's American week coincided with corporate America's India week. While
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in the US soliciting, among other
things, American investment, US businesses were in India seeking India-and
Indians. Probably the most action-packed week in the history of US-India
economic relations, the seven days between September 13 and September
19 saw:
- Resumption
of US economic assistance to India, stalled after the May 1998 nuclear
tests.
- Signing
of agreements for the development of two thermal and one hydro power
plant between US energy companies and Indian promoters.
- Opening
of GE's largest research and development centre near
Bangalore.
- Visit
of William (Bill) Gates, the richest man in the US-and the world-to
Delhi.
- Resolve
to double and triple bilateral trade and investment from the US in the
next five years.
- Setting
up of a monitoring agency in the Prime Minister's Office to review the
progress of investment projects every month.
Says Arun
Bharat Ram, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (cii) which
organised two business meets with Vajpayee in the US: "Indo-US business
relations are at their best. The watershed was President Bill Clinton's
visit to India. The quick return visit by the prime minister has given
it a further impetus."
 |
| Vajpayee
made a vigorous pitch for US investment |
A concrete
proof of that is the signing of agreements for three mega power projects
which, if completed, will have the potential to generate investment and
business worth $6 billion (Rs 27,000 crore). Biggest of the three agreements
is the one signed between Southern Energy Inc. (US), Reliance Power and
Power Trading Corporation of India for a 3,800 MW power project in Orissa.
If the project fructifies, it will be the world's largest independent
power project and will sell electricity to five states-Punjab, Haryana,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. On textiles-one of the most contentious
areas of Indo-US trade-the two countries struck a deal. India agreed to
bring down customs duties on 94 categories of textiles to wto-negotiated
levels (called bound rates) in return for more flexibility from US on
its quotas for textile imports from India.
Finance Minister
Yashwant Sinha and his US counterpart, Treasury Secretary Larry Summers,
inched closer to resolving another complicated business issue-double taxation
of corporate profits on companies operating in both countries. The US
Exim Bank pledged $900 million help for purchase of US goods and services
by Indian businesses. This is the first instance of a US agency providing
non-humanitarian assistance to India after the nuclear tests at Pokhran
in May 1998.
Pg.2
Top
|
If
there was one word to summarise Putin+s style, it is Realnosti---Russian
for get real---says INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Chengappa in
