India and the U.S. are partners not because they have a common enemy but because they have common interests, according to Vaibhavi Palsule, co-author of ‘U.S. India Forward Leap: Partnership Building’, and Vice Principal of Ramnarain Ruia College.
“The partnership is a goal-driven one and even if the leaders or the situations change the partnership will continue and that will allow them a freedom of operation,” she said.
Ms. Palsule was speaking at the launch of the book in the city on Wednesday.
Based on the partnership between India and the U.S., the book talks about how the two countries started working together as partners, tracing their relationship back to the Cold War period and later what emerged in the new millennium. Ms. Palsule said India and the U.S. were strategic partners, meaning they have an alliance. “This means they both have mutual gains and have come together for the purpose of mutual advantage.”
V. Rangaraj, author of the book and Founder President of the U.S.-India Importers Council, said the U.S. is one of India’s top five destinations for investment. Indian companies invested over $11 billion in the U.S., creating and sustaining more than 62,000 jobs in 2016, he said, citing research by the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis. “As of 2016, 30 U.S. companies invested $15 billion in four to five years,” he said, adding American Foreign Direct Investment in India is now at $34 billion dollars. “Looking forward, the canvas is bright and things are encouraging. The U.S. is responding to India’s needs. It now depends upon the pragmatic maturity of both the leaders to do well in business,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, P.M. Kamath, Chairman and Director, VPM’s Centre for International studies, said globalisation is here to stay, while Donald Trump is an “accidental president” whose decisions are primarily driven by the profit motive. “His victory is still in doubt. Trump appears to be unpredictable in his decisions and is whimsical,” he said.
Lalit Kanodia, Chairman, Datamatics Group of companies, said, “The biggest need of the country right now is economic growth. From 1947 to 1991, the average rate of growth in India was below the world average. Today, we are twice the world average.” At least three million Indians in the U.S. and two governors there were Indians, he said. “At least 52% of hi-tech workers in Silicon Valley are Indians. We need to leverage that to our knowledge.” India, said Mr. Kanodia, has two big problems. “We need to grow, and the other problem is job creation. Nearly 70% of the jobs are not in a certain profession but in vocations. We have not done a good job with vocations, which comprise plumbers, car drivers.”
Rashmi Bhure, Vice Principal and Head of Department in politics at SIES College, Sion, took the audience on the book’s journey. “The book begins with estrangement between India and the U.S. for many years, takes a leap towards engagement post 1990. Then comes the end: 100 days of Trump administration in the U.S., and there’s uncertainty between these countries. During the time of President Obama, it was the same. The book ends with the hope that relations between India and U.S. will continue as they were in the last 20 years.”
