The US and India have a lot to share with each other as approximately five million Indians are contributing to the US economy
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US has up a sense of reverence and serenity leading to the harmonic chord of touch in the Indo-US relationship. It is also a sheer display of the hidden prowess of India’s soft power diplomacy creating an international environment of positivity and evoking dazzling serendipity in international relations winning applause all the way.PM Modi’s recent address to the joint meeting of both the houses of American Congress showcased how positive leadership and dynamism can be a game changer in a web of power struggles in International Politics.
The MoU between GE Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics to facilitate the production of 99 leading F414 engines has enhanced the chances of technology transfer. In addition to this, an agreement on the production of Jet engines for Mk2 (combat aircraft ) and MQ-9B Hale UAVs (drones) would facilitate the smooth process of sophisticated technology transfer. This would enhance defence strategies via intelligence gathering to encounter security challenges from China and Pakistan and any terrorist group. Besides, cooperation in Artificial Intelligence can be of immense use. Traditionally, the foreign policy of any country used to be influenced by myriad factors but primarily determined by the dynamism of National Interest based on economic and security concerns which keep changing with situations and circumstances as being highly dynamic in nature.
The recent visit of PM Modi has been a game changer in the sense that now India has demonstrated the importance of ideology, cultural heritage, morality and good deeds alone can lead to intimacy between the countries despite a few differences. The warmth in the diplomatic endeavour between India and the US provides enough food for thought to write a new Theory of International Politics. The richness of Indian historical and cultural ideas such as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (One Earth, One Family) and Jan Bhagidari (larger people participation)
have been acknowledged the world over. These are not mere ideas but have emerged as major catalysts for transformation in thinking to view politics among nations, a major departure from Hans J. Morgenthau’s Realist Approach to studying International Politics. This will provide a new perspective on looking at different concepts in IR by displaying the importance of promoting peace, harmony and cooperation. India’s services-driven industry prowess and its institutional stability, deeply interwoven in pluralism and democracy have already brought it tremendous inner strength and won more friends. Recently, there has been a revolution in the process of opening up of start-ups as they have crossed the landmark of more than ten thousand providing a huge impetus to employment generation during the last five years alone.
According to a recent report by economic analysts, the robust strategy of start-ups has created more than one lakh of both direct and indirect jobs. The strategy to enhance its operational and support network, ranging from rural to urban areas, India ensured a much higher rate of return on assets. India also made magnificent strides in a number of areas, including knowledge and skill-based intensive services in telecommunication and scientific and technological innovation. India is also emerging as the first choice for foreign investors who are gradually pumping in a huge amount, more than $60 billion in the Indian stock markets with about 260 new foreign investors having registered with the stock market regulating body (SEBI) during the last two decades or so.
The stupendous progress of India in the IT industry has opened a new era of Indian companies aggressively capturing overseas markets, even the US has begun to realise this. The ambit of compliance and regulatory authorities also provide economic security as nothing gets undetected and is something to learn from. Foreign investor sentiments can further be enhanced by creating permissible ease in the tax rates and the existing protocols without compromising on security. On the other hand, further cementing Indo-US ties will be quite helpful in developing international cooperation for fighting the new tentacles of transnational terrorism and provide much-needed impetus to work out a new security road map in dealing with a most obnoxious form of modern terrorism. Myriad security and defence cooperation in Communication, Information Security Memorandum, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreements and Initiatives for Critical and Emerging Technologies between India and the US are based on mutual coordination and lead to stupendous aggrandizement towards communication capability and management of security arrangements to deal with any kind of threat. This would help in generating prudence to anticipate the forebodings about a possible threat from either any state or non-state actors. Besides, this would be helpful in opening new avenues for Communication Compatibility and Security Agreements to facilitate cooperation between the security and defence establishments of the two largest democracies of the world.
The US and India have a lot to share with each other as approximately 5 million Indians are contributing to the US economy directly or indirectly either being employed there or studying in different US Universities. Besides, there has been a huge investment done by numerous companies in each other's countries creating new trade partnerships between both countries and accelerating mutual growth. This augurs very well for future diplomatic endeavours between the two largest democracies of the world.
( The writer, a recipient of the Bharat Gaurav Award is a Professor and an Expert on Strategic Affairs)