Modi's rendezvous with the US

With every foreign visit Prime Minister Modi with his eloquence of expression and ease of establishing rapport is sweeping the World off its feet. While the international media showered encomiums on effortless ease of Modi is putting India on World pedestal Indian opposition overpowered by jealously dubiously downgraded the visit. It is a matter of great pride that Prime Minister Modi managed to have five eventful meetings with President Obama in less than two years of coming to power. Modi’s meticulous planning and outreach in pursuing India’s interests on foreign tours is praised by the Pakistani media that has come down heavily on their Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif questioning his insignificant itinerary.

A new era in the bilateral relations between the both countries began with the visit of President Bill Clinton to India in 2000. With Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee providing the needed impetus for an effective engagement the relationship began to flourish during the regimes of President Bush and Barack Obama. As financial conditions in India began to stabilize, the US began to view India as an “indispensable partner” and counterweight weight to the growing clout of the China. Furthermore under the thrust of the shared values the world’s oldest democracy and the largest democracy began to strengthen the engagement under the realm of the strategic partnership as well. Modi’s second visit to the US focused on clean energy, investments and digital India has come at a propitious time when the Chinese economy under the burden of the deep structural reforms began to stumble financially.

During the five day long grueling schedule to the US- Modi first landed in the east coast and assiduously pursued the strategic, commercial and financial objectives of India. Modi reinvigorated the objectives of the decade old G-4 summit. He hosted the leaders of Japan, Germany and Brazil and gave a push to India’s bid for a seat at the reformed UN Security Council. Representing India at the UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015, he stressed the need for the International partnerships for the progress of the humanity. Later he hosted a dinner for the CEO’s of the fortune 500 companies wherein he addressed the concerns of the business tycoons about the slow pace of reforms in India, exhorted more investments and promised individual attention. American business leaders who are wary of investing in China following the recent stock market crash and consequent devaluation of the Yuan are now eagerly looking forward to India.

Later Modi hopped onto the Western Coast where he was accorded a rapturous welcome. Modi inaugurated Indo US StartUp Konnect and visited offices of the Facebook, Google, Tesla and reached out to the elite of the Silicon Valley. Modi has effectively utilized the good will of the three-million strong Indian American community to build bridges between the two countries. Ironically no other Indian leader could connect up with the Indian diaspora that emerged as one of the most powerful section of people in the valley.  None of the past Indian Prime Ministers could match up to the showmanship and marketing qualities of the Narendra Modi. The august gathering of the Silicon Valley Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Bill Gates, James Chambers lined up to schmooze with him. Modi was viewed differently by the Americans who respected him for the Indian-ness he exuded, for his tech-savviness, his non-judgmental attitude and for strongly proclaiming his origins. Modi unlike the past Prime Ministers of India reveled in his Hindu origins and was able to reach out to the Americans who draw inspiration from the vedantic values. With a right mix of soft and hard powers, Modi enthused the Americans and could a mark of his own.

Disgustingly while opposition party of India was busy accusing Modi of faking poverty and spending millions of tax payers’ money for his personal aggrandizement during foreign trips, international media hailed Modi for conquering the technological Mecca. Interestingly implications of Modi’s visit too were largely debated in the US media as the two influential Asian leaders Modi and President Xi visited them at the same time. Both Modi and President Xi were in the US wooing the technocrats and business leaders for investments to their respective countries. Interesting similarities were drawn between the leaders and Western media carried out unapologetic and unbiased reviews of these two visits. While President Xi was in Seattle carrying out high profile dialogue with the Boeing Company who queued up to meet him, Modi too was in the West Coast visiting the technocrats at their work places elaborating about his twin projects Digital India and Skill India. Modi’s presence drew lot of public interest in the US as compared to Xi.

Days before Modi’s visit to the US an affidavit signed by the academicians in the US (which included high profile Indo-US professors) addressed to the techno giants of the Silicon Valley warned them of the risk of doing business with the Indian government threatened to cast an ominous shadow. Together the agitation by the Patels pressing for reservation portended to spoil the visit. But all these accusations and boycott calls died down with business men ignoring the negative overtures propagated by motivated leftist groups.

Incidentally just as Congress raised a tirade against government questioning Prime Minister’s foreign trips, data released from FT data services indicated that India topped the foreign direct investment league table (1). India attracted $3 billion more than China and $4 billion in excess of US FDI. This data is believed to ensure that India moves up the ranking of ease of doing business calculated by the World Bank. India has moved 16 places in the Global Competitive Index to 55^th position. Further with investors in the Silicon Valley taking keen interest in investing in India and crude oil price falling experts believe that India might surely touch the 8% growth rate in the current fiscal year. During his meetings with bigwigs of the West Coast Modi has managed to catapult their interest in his pet projects of the Digital India and Skill India Mission. Five important announcements in the Silicon Valley has boosted Modi’s dreams of Digital India initiative.

Google will provide to set up 500 free Wi-Fi networks in Railway Stations, Microsoft announced initiatives to work on low-cost internet technology that will reach 5 lakh villages and start of cloud computing services from the data centers in India, Qualcomm promised to set up a $150 million fund for Indian startups. Apple expressed willingness to be part of Digital India initiative Facebook to work for universal internet access by 2020. Modi logged off majestically from the valley after addressing the 18,000 strong Indian community at the SAP Centre. Modi emotionally stirred the Indian Diaspora and appealed them to invest in India and contribute towards empowerment of 1.25 billion Indians. With his mesmerizing oratory skills he exulted that what was lamented as “brain drain” few decades is now a  tremendous “brain deposit”, all set to power the innovative engine of India. His fervent appeals and passionate dreams of driving India along the path of growth and development practically enthused the techies of Silicon Valley who are now assured of a vibrant India.

The first India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue that concluded a day before Modi’s visit to the US laid a firm ground for discussion on issues of bilateral interest. So on the final day of Modi’s trip he met President Obama for the fifth time in less than two years and underlined India’s commitment towards climate change and thanked US for backing India’s bid for permanent membership in the reformed UNSC. Further Modi requested US to extend financial and technological help to India in its efforts to go green. Accordingly India has announced its Intended National Determined Contributions (INDC) a mandatory promise made by countries before the Paris Summit on Gandhi Jayanti.

Besides Modi met several of the World leaders in the New York giving a final push to 20 –year long India’s efforts to get into the Security Council. Prime Minister met leaders from several countries- Guyana, St. Vincent and Gernadines, Egypt, Mexico, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus and Sweden. While China, Italy and Pakistan are busy stymying India’s entry Prime Minister Modi left no stone unturned to brighten India’s chances at the UN by meeting Prime Minister of UK David Cameron and President of France Francois Hollande. Riding high on neighborhood first paradigm Modi meet the leaders from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh along the sidelines of the UN.

Before leaving for India, Modi attended the UN Peace Keeping Force Summit where he waved at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and reiterated India’s valuable contribution. India has so far contributed 180,000 troops to 48 UN peace keeping mission and trained about 800 officers from 82 countries. Expressing concern over the non-inclusion of the Troop Contributing Countries in decision making process Modi paid homage to the 24,000 troops who have lost their lives. In short, as an emerging nations India’s growth interests are fuelled by the flow of dollars from a strong economy and an innovative hub like the US. While India is the 11^th major trading partner of the US, India’s stock market fortunes are essentially reliant on the foreign exchange flows from the US. Further Indian fortunes are inextricably tied with the US as it is still the most favored destination for higher education for Indian students. Despite the ambiguous stand of the US towards the Pakistan, with NATO pulling troops from Afghanistan India can vainly ignore the importance of the strategic ties with the super power for the control in wields in this region. Undoubtedly Modi during his recent trip to US has deftly pushed ahead India’s interests at various fora and generated enough momentum for the brand India.

1. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-pips-US-China-as-No-1-foreign-direct-investment-destination/articleshow/49160838.cms
2. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/PM-Modi-in-US-5-key-announcements-made-by-technology-CEOs/articleshow/49125820.cms?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=timesofindia

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