The New Team A-I

The reception accorded to PM Modi by the US and the kind of deals inked attest to India's status as a rising economic power

- MANISH PANT

WHEN THE FOUNDER of the world's leading hedge fund says something, it has to be taken seriously. In a tweet during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates noted, "...He [Modi] and India are in an analogous position to Deng Xiaoping and China in the early 1980s-i.e., at the brink of the fastest growth rates and biggest transformations in the world...". The 1979 visit by the late Chinese premier saw China and the US agreeing to co-operate in the areas of science and technology, education, commerce, space and culture as well as the opening of consulates. Forty-four years later, Modi may have far surpassed Deng's record by inking over 30 agreements in areas ranging from high-end technologies to advanced telecommunications, and defence to education, to diplomacy, sustainable development and global health, among others. "...I believe that Modi has what it takes to have the greatest impact on the largest number of people in the world at a time that the risks of harmful impact are greater than at any time in our lifetimes," Dalio had tweeted.