‘Whenever any company gets an Indian on board, its value goes up’: India’s ambassador to the US

“Learn from the past but keep your eyes trained on the future. And build alliances on essentials,’’ said the ambassador as he interacted with public policy and international relations researchers at the Institute of Development and Communication on Monday evening.

Sandhu has seen the ebb and flow of India’s relationship with the US for over two and half decades, starting with his first stint in Washington in 1997, a year before India conducted the nuclear test. “I saw the US sanctions as well as their removal,’’ says Sadhu, whose next stint in the US coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ascent to power and his maiden US visit. “The PM’s first visit to Madison Square garden was very useful, then President Barrack Obama personally took him to the Martin Luther King memorial. His second visit in 2015 was very IT-focused,’’ said Sadhu remembering the famous dinner PM Modi had with six top CEOs of tech companies, four of them Indians.

Sandhu, who sees the bilateral ties developing in five broad areas, namely, defence and strategy, health, technology, energy, and education, says Indian tech companies contribute 80 billion dollars to the US GDP. “Whenever any company gets an Indian on board, its value goes up.’’

Dwelling on the military partnership between the two nations, he says India conducts more exercises with the US than any other country. “The LCA engine is a GE engine, plans are afoot to co-produce it in India.’’ Referring to the Galwan clash in 2020, the ambassador said India enjoyed complete bipartisan support in the US during this conflict.

The Indo-US ties in the health sector are also in the pink with almost 50 percent of generic medicine produced in India supplied to the US, says the ambassador. “Rotavirus vaccine was developed by the US, but its cost came down from USD 60 to 1 when an Indian company began to manufacture it,’’ Sandhu says, adding how India is also bulk producing a Coronavirus vaccine developed in Texas.

The pandemic, says Sandhu, gave a further fillip to the bilateral relationship. “It was during Covid in 2021 that President Joe Biden called India a reliable partner. And be it the US Congress, administration or military, everyone was very clear that Covid cannot be allowed to defeat India.’’

Regardless of India’s stand on Ukraine, the relationship, says the ambassador, is moving ahead. “We see things from a negative and conspiracy angle…There have been three physical meetings between President Biden and PM Modi in a year besides several virtual interactions. Last month saw union ministers of external affairs, commerce, finance. science and technology, and petroleum visiting the US and vice-versa.’’

The trade policy forum has already met once and another meeting is being convened next month. The India-US CEO forum too is going strong, says the envoy.

Even though the two nations are working on knowledge sharing by encouraging joint research and courses et al, Sandhu doesn’t think students here necessarily need to beat a path to the US. “We should invest here so that youngsters don’t feel the need to go abroad.’’ Which is why he is particularly excited about the focus of the two countries on semi- conductors. “This will require a huge green manpower. India has tremendous potential. Many US companies want to set up shop here.’’