'INDIA'S EMERGENCE AS AN ECONOMIC BEHEMOTH BRINGING IT CLOSER TO U.S.'

‘According to official figures, the overall US-India bilateral trade in goods and services reached arecord 157 billion, a drastic increase from the 2020 trade figures,’ says Mukesh Aghi.

- MANEESH PANDEYA WASHINGTON DC

India-US business and trade relations are on a new high in the postCovid era. Particularly after India has got its coveted membership in the world's top five economies, which has made the South Asian tiger the new Asian emerging giant. The Sunday Guardian spoke to Mukesh Aghi, CEO and President of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), the apex platform for all business, trade and investments between the two democracies. "India has emerged as an economic behemoth, and a South Asian tiger, opening prospects for a constructive India-US business diplomacy", says Aghi.

Excerpts: Q: How do you imagine India-US business diplomacy in the current post-Covid scenario?

A: The US-India relationship has been dubbed as the most important strategic partnership of the 21st century. I have witnessed how the relationship has moved beyond symbolic platitudes between the world's oldest and largest democracies to robust engagements across trade, defence, climate and technology. While we celebrate 75 years of US-India relations, it is important to note that the economic story has been shorter, only over 30 years since India’s economic reforms of 1991. Despite economic blips during the pandemic, the bilateral trade between India and the US has crossed the 100 billion mark in 2021. According to official figures, the overall US-India bilateral trade in goods and services reached a record 157 billion, a drastic increase from the 2020 trade figures.

The pandemic presented an opportunity for India and the US to collaborate on vaccine delivery, India with its pharmaceutical sector strengths and the US with its logistics network, and now the post pandemic era has thrown economic synergy across climate, technology, rebuilding resilient supply chains and continuing vaccine through the Quad, 12U2 and now collaboration on IPEF.