While President Barack Obama’s hardsell taking the business relationship between India and the US to new levels has raised big hopes among Indian businessmen, the immediate gains for this country are yet to be visible. The American side has been able to quantify its gains at $10 billion, but what is India getting? Mr Obama, coming days after a battering by Republican rivals in the mid-term elections back home, made it a challenge for himself to ensure that his Asia trip would be seen by Americans as a mission to create jobs back home. At his first substantive meeting in India’s commercial capital, he announced that the 20 deals signed in India would create 50,000 new US jobs — including high-tech ones in California and manufacturing jobs in Ohio. The landmark deals reached by Boeing, General Electric and several other US giants must have warmed the hearts of the 200-odd CEOs travelling with the President, besides of course the huge military deals said to be in the offing. Mr Obama’s repeated emphasis on India’s huge market and huge middle class, his references to India and Asia as the “markets of the future” made the message clear: he was here to sell American goods to a country that has seen incomes rising sharply in the past two decades. For this he needs India to open up markets in diverse areas — from retail to telecom, from agriculture to information technology. To drive this message home, he said the US now sends only two per cent of its total exports to India, less than it does to the Netherlands, which is smaller than the city of Mumbai!
But the key question being asked in Indian business circles is that if America got $10 billion in business from this country, what did India get in return? The President offered nothing. The removal of Indian entities such as Isro and DRDO from the US sanctions list is not of exceptional importance as when it comes to the crunch India can always get similar technology from Russia or France. There was nothing said about the sharing of clean coal technology, which India has been seeking for some time: the US generates 50 per cent of its power through coal-fired plants, while India uses coal a lot more to generate power. Nothing on pharmaceuticals either: the US sees Indian pharma companies as a big threat and has been giving them a hard time, particularly on generic drugs. Also, there was no mention of making visas easier for Indian workers, a matter being vigorously opposed by US labour unions.
And then of course there is the perennial matter of Pakistan. Just before Mr Obama’s India visit, the US gifted Pakistan an additional $2 billion in military assistance, ostensibly to help it fight against the Taliban. This gives rise to suspicions in this country about US intentions: will it please explain how maritime reconnaissance planes — part of the package — will help it fight the Taliban in landlocked Afghanistan? On Sunday, a day after his failure to refer to Pakistan’s role in terrorism against this country at a memorial for 26/11 victims caused eyebrows to rise in some quarters, he did acknowledge that Pakistan was “not as quick as we would have liked” in fighting terror, but then urged New Delhi to begin a dialogue with Islamabad on “less controversial issues, building up to more controversial issues” (though there was no mention of the K-word, a clear reference to Kashmir). While he helpfully offered that Washington would not “impose” itself in the Indo-Pak dialogue, does he really think India is in need of advice that a stable Pakistan is in its own best interest? Is America trying to play with India?