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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JPR who wrote (10650)	2/9/2000 3:26:00 AM
From: Sam Bose	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

America's Indian Ambassador: "I Call It U.S.-India.Com" With President Clinton's state visit approaching, Richard Celeste talks about the agenda and info tech BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE February 9, 2000 On Mar. 20, President Clinton will make the first state visit by a U.S. President to India since Eisenhower made the trip in 1959. During the intervening three decades, the world's two largest democracies have kept their distance. Due in part to India's pro-Soviet policies and socialist-style economy, and the U.S. political alliance with Pakistan, Indo-U.S. relations remained chilly. But the last decade has brought a change of political heart on both sides. Pakistan's military rulers have been accused of coddling terrorism directed against the U.S., while India has liberalized its large, lumbering economy and embraced capitalism. Though the U.S. imposed sanctions on India in May, 1998, following its surprise nuclear tests, the chill is beginning to thaw. With India's information-technology industry on the rise and vitally connected to Silicon Valley, both nations are looking for a new, probusiness alignment. Richard Celeste, former governor of Ohio and current U.S. Ambassador to New Delhi, is an old India hand. In the 1950s, he served as special assistant to then-U.S. Ambassador to India Chester Bowles at a time when a newly independent India was at the forefront of the nonaligned movement. Ambassador Celeste spoke to Business Week's Manjeet Kripalani in Bombay, just before his address at Nasscom 2000, a major IT conference. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation: Q: What's on the agenda for President Clinton's visit to India? A: We will talk about security issues, nonproliferation, counterterrorism, things that are in the headlines. We'll also talk about trade and investment. There's a hope that was foreshadowed by Treasury Secretary Larry Summers' visit that we could raise the level of foreign direct investment in India quite significantly. We'll look for opportunities for collaboration in science and technology. The information-technology sector has its own head of steam. But the same can be true of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and the development of the next generation of vaccines. It can be true in areas that range from environmental concerns we share, [such as] global climate change, to sustainable-development issues like energy generation [and] water resources. Q: What about bringing India and Pakistan to the negotiating table? A: I don't know whether we believe we can bring them to the negotiating table. We hope they can get together around a negotiating table, because that's in the interest of the two countries, and certainly the President would encourage that. But we understand that it requires a commitment of leadership on the side of both India and Pakistan. Q: What influence could the U.S. bring to bear on India and Pakistan to persuade them to start negotiating? A: I don't think this is a trip where one issue of regional stability is going to dominate. The parties have to decide that it's in their own interest, and they have to find ways to communicate that. We've made it plain. There are serious differences now that need to be addressed. I guess I don't think I'd try to imagine what the conversation will be like eight weeks from now. Q: What does India need to do to attract more foreign direct investment? A: Continue to open up. In many respects, the model is the information-technology industry itself. The decision was made some time back to allow the software industry in India to compete on a very even playing field with the software industry worldwide, whether it was on import duties or customs clearances or [broadband network] downlinks to software parks. There were probably dozens of ways in which the early IT industry was given a green light to go out and compete in a robust fashion. And today you have Infosys Technologies, Satyam, Wipro, HCL, a whole list of world-class IT companies which have thrived as a consequence. And I think part of the message is, we don't have to give you a road map on how you can ramp up both your foreign direct investment and your export earnings and your growth rate. You have the road map here. Take that road map, and say, "How do we apply that to pharmaceuticals, to chemicals, to food processing, to any one of a dozen other industries?" Q: How soon will the sanctions against India resulting from its nuclear tests in 1998 be lifted? A: I think that as we make progress on the nonproliferation agenda, most of the sanctions will be lifted. There are some that relate to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, [which] preexisted India's decision to test nuclear weapons. But I'd say that that's going to be in a very narrow arena. In all but those areas of science that are directly involved in the area of nuclear weapons or the development of ballistic missiles, I'd say we would see a much more active collaboration. I'm assuming that at some point India sees that it's in its interest to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and goes ahead and signs. Q: What do you expect information technology to do for Indo-U.S. understanding? A: The story of Indo U.S. relations has been one of misconception and misunderstanding. India seldom had the sustained attention of the citizens of my country and vice versa. Geography contributed to that. We were estranged. But that is no longer true. Today night and day work well for our two nations, providing 24 hour communications. Between the two, we can trade off and work with each other virtually and seamlessly. The sun never sets on Indo-U.S. IT collaborations. Indo-U.S. relations will more and more resemble our collaboration with the IT industry. I call it U.S.-India.com, the growth stock in international diplomacy. In our bilateral relations, there's convergence in a whole range of sectors. Indo U.S. relations and cooperation is growing every day, and it is powered by the IT revolution. EDITED BY PAUL JUDGE