United States President Barack Obama and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, arrived in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, on Saturday and quickly got down to the main business of the day — business. This meant $10 billion in deals with Indian firms that would create over 50,000 jobs in America.
The announcement of big deals being struck was not unexpected considering that Mr Obama’s pre-visit pronouncements were all about drumming up ways to create thousands of jobs back home. His India visit will be the longest yet of his presidency to any destination outside the United States.
The first thing on his busy agenda after his arrival on Saturday was signing the book at the martyrs’ memorial at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel where scores of Taj guests and staff were killed by Pakistani terrorists. It was perfunctory; he did not even speak to the survivors of the 26/11 attack. Many were upset since they were called all the way to be present at the function. What irked people who heard him first- or second-hand was that he did not mention Pakistan nor its hand in terrorism against India. “We use our visit here to send a very clear message that in our determination to give our people a future of security and prosperity, the United States and India stand united,” he said, but did not mention the ISI though it was the US intelligence agencies that had also confirmed the ISI and Pakistan’s hand in the 26/11 terror attacks. An acknowledged wordsmith, he wrote in the guest book: “We will always remember the events of 26/11; not only the sorrow, but also the courage and humanity that was displayed that day.” This was followed by a visit to Mani Bhavan where as a genuine admirer of Mahatma Gandhi he was moved by the sparse belongings displayed in the museum.
The US, meanwhile, announced it would support India for full membership in the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group and three other multilateral export control regimes. “These are the NSG... the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australian Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement,” Mr Mike Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, said in a statement. This will help India get access to dual-use technology and give India a say in framing export control rules. Also, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Indian Space Research Organisation and Bharat Dynamics Ltd are to be taken off the US embargo list, a move indicated in Mr Obama’s speech on Saturday evening when he said the US was “reforming” its export control system. “So, even as we strengthen our national security, we make sure that unnecessary barriers do not stand in the way of high-tech trade between our two countries,” Mr Obama said.
“The second element of the export control reform package being announced is that we will remove India’s defence and space-related entities from the US entity list. The entity list at one point had, I believe, 220 Indian entities on it. And there are only four left. And today we will be announcing a removal of three of them,” Mr Froman said in his statement.
But the real action of the American President’s two-day visit to Mumbai was his hardsell of deals that mean jobs back home. Though he was addressing Indian and American CEOs at the Trident Hotel, his real message was to his opponents in America as he stressed in particular that the 20 deals worth $10 billion signed during his visit would result in creating 50,000 jobs in the US. These include Boeing going to sell 30 737s to SpiceJet for $2.7 billion and GE selling hundreds of electric engines. “There will be hi-tech jobs created in California and manufacturing jobs in Ohio,” President Obama added. On the controversial and emotive issue of outsourcing, he said: “There still exists a caricature of India as land of call centres and back offices that cost American jobs. That’s a real perception. There are many Americans whose only experience with trade and globalisation has been shuttered factories or jobs being shifted overseas.” He added that “old stereotypes” ignore today’s reality as in 2010 trade is not a one-way street as jobs are created in both countries and the standards of living are higher in both countries. Pitching for more expansive trade with India, he said “the potential economic relations between the two countries are still untapped. It accounts for less than 10 per cent of imports from the US and two per cent of US exports from India. It is even less than our trade with the Netherlands, which is smaller than the city of Mumbai. India is the US’ 12 largest trading partner.” He urged India “to remove barriers from agriculture to infrastructure and retail to telecommunications, to increase trade”.
With regard to the small and medium enterprises, he said there would be a trade mission from the US coming to India shortly to increase interaction between the two countries in this area. He even said the US export control system would be improved to help India. Soon after he made his speech, Mr Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Power, and Mr Jeff Immelt, chairman of General Electric, announced a $2.2 billion (`10,000 crore) deal in the presence of Mr Obama. GE will help in the 2400 MW power project being put up by RPower at Samalkot, India.
Though President Obama was repeatedly applauded, the Indian businessmen were not overly enthused because there was nothing much about what India would get in return for shelling out $10 billion.
The US President will begin Sunday in Mumbai with a celebration of Diwali with the children of the Holy Name School and maybe visit the Holy Name Cathedral adjoining the school since he is a Catholic. He will then address students at St Xavier’s College before flying to New Delhi.