Just a nano-second, Mr President

We must remember that from a philosophical nomenclature of “natural partners”, we moved to a “strategic partnership” and on July 18, 2005, we widened the scope to “global partners”. In a hitherto unprecedented statement, Singh-Bush invoked the concept of “leaders of nations committed to values of human freedom, democracy and rule of law. The new relationship between India and the US… will enhance our ability to work together to provide global leadership”. The US was finally honouring our “democracy dividend” and recognising the immense economic potential of India, now destined to overtake France, UK, Germany and Japan by 2035.

Though, the US is the largest trading partner and the largest investor into India, it is little known that between 1990-91 and 2004-05, our share of trade with the US as a proportion of total trade of India fell from 13.3 per cent to 10.5 per cent. This, while our trade with China grew from $1 billion to $14 billion by 2005. India’s trade with Asean went up from $2 billion to $17 billion during the same period. In other words, India was looking east to spread its footprint. Bush visit must result in accelerating trade flows with the US once again.

A vital area of common interest is the “energy deficit”. A recent study suggests that by 2015 India would be importing 87 per cent of its oil needs and 40 per cent of its gas needs. This is a frightening prognosis. India will need 100,000 MW of power and with the Enron imbroglio behind us, the Indo-US cooperation in this sector is critical. Nuclear power, which provides only 2400 MW, is projected to provide 44,900 MW by 2032 and 205,000 MW by 2052. Imported reactors can provide another 69,000 MW. These are significant targets and call for massive cooperation between the US and India, without surrendering our strategic interests.

Coming to the grassroots level, we must recall that our first green revolution in food grains, which made us self-sufficient, arose from the sustained cooperation with US knowledge leaders. Today, Punjab alone can feed a billion people if all of us become wheat eaters. The time is ripe for a second green revolution through a similar knowledge synergy as mooted in the Bush-Singh accord of July 2005. We now must diversify from wheat and rice to oil seeds, cotton, sugarcane, pulses, bio-fuels and, of course, the widest range of horticulture. We must also fuel an agro-processing revolution through cold chain technology, refrigeration and rural logistics. These two agri-revolutions alone can employ a part of the 40 million people looking for jobs today, mostly in the rural areas, and create employment for the 20 million who will enter the labour force demographically in the next five years. Bush visit must make this knowledge cooperation in agriculture the fulcrum of our economic partnerships. Political correctness of such a partnership is also obvious.

Infrastructure is the primary constraint to sustained economic growth and partnership in this area feature prominently in the Singh-Bush package. Aside from power, we now need new deliverables from the US on ports, roads, airports and waterways.

If India is to lead in the drive to a knowledge century, the Indo-US High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG), formed three years ago, must play a vital role. We are focusing on advanced IT, biotech, nano-tech and defence. The US had built massive licencing walls on “dual use technologies”. It is heartening that within an year, the US removed the need for licences for 750 “dual use technologies” for India. Much more must follow with a sense of trust between our two great democracies.

If our biotech industry is to grow, it will have to rely on 70 per cent of the world’s researched biotech materials, harboured in the US. Yet we do not have a biotech protocol to import these materials to transform them into vaccines. On October 17, 2005, Kapil Sibal and Condoleezza Rice inked a Science and Technology Agreement, which promised to introduce such a protocol. We hope that Bush visit will result in completion of such a protocol.

Similarly, in the field of nano-technology, destined to be the new frontier of the 21st century, the US has set up over 4000 nano-centres across the country and are graduating 100,000 students with nano-capabilities. India apparently has 154 nano-centres, only few of which match the 4000 functioning in the US and we have no nano curriculum to date. Such will be the power of nano that by 2015, many human body parts would become replaceable using nano materials and cancer could become obsolete through the injection of nano-bombs, which would locate and kill cancer cells. Indo-US synergy in this cutting edge area is equally vital. Will the Bush visit see major steps in this cooperation?

It is heartening that private sector engagement in defence industries is about to get a boost with the implementation of the Kelkar committee report by Pranab Mukherjee. As we buy defence equipment from the US, we will expect 30 per cent “offsets” — a billion dollar of purchase would lead to 300 million dollars of return flow on technology transfer, equipment maintenance and modifications within the defence sector. This will become the new frontier of public-private partnership with the US. The once massive “entities list” — Indian companies with whom US companies could not collaborate because of their involvement in defence — has now been whittled down to only four. This is a big step forward in our technology cooperation efforts in sensitive areas.

The Bush visit must be leveraged for all of these multi-dimensional economic booster engines. These are win-win options for both nations and, most importantly, offer massive gains for people from different layers of society — from rural folk to nano-technologists. I believe we can do it if we are focused, determined and time-bound in our approach.

Amit Mitra is secretary general, FICCI