India- USA Cooperation in Economy, Trade and Technology: Focusing On Make In India and Digital Indian Campaigns - Utkarsh Pratap Singh The United States and India share a strong and growing commercial and economic relationship, driven by entrepreneurs and businesses in both countries. In January 2015, President Obama and Prime Minister Modi decided to elevate the bilateral commercial and economic partnership by establishing the first-ever U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S&CD). The S&CD is the signature, annual forum for policy discussions between the United States Government and the Government of India. The United States and Indian Governments are using this vehicle to advance our shared priorities of generating economic growth, creating jobs, and strengthening the middle class. The S&CD reflects the Obama Administrations commitment to strengthen the economic engagement that lies at the center of our bilateral relationship. This engagement, which includes business, education, cultural, familial and people-to-people ties, has always been at the leading edge of the U.S.- India partnership, and continues to expand. India- USA bilateral trade has grown from $19 billion in 2000 to over $100 billion in 2014. U.S. exports to India totalled $38 billion last year, supporting an estimated 181,000 U.S. jobs. Cumulative Indian foreign direct investment in the United States totalled $7.8 billion in 2014; U.S. foreign direct investment into India was $28 billion. Ongoing government actions to facilitate trade in both directions and open new sectors to private investment will continue to accelerate not only economic growth and development, but also increase prosperity for the citizens of both our countries. One of the major highlight of such an event was India- USA CEO Forum that offered suggestions in key areas such as business climate, smart cities and infrastructure financing, supply chain integration (including cold chain), aerospace/defence, and renewable energy among other topics. Simultaneously, India and US had signed an approximate three billion USD deal for the purchase of 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift choppers with the US government and American aviation giant Boeing. A part of this much coveted deal is in with regards to give the Make in India programme a significant push, this Apache deal was signed with Boeing for the helicopter and the other with the US government, under Foreign Military Sales route, for its weapons, radars and electronic warfare suites. Also, the American aviation giant company Boeing, had made it clear that they have the plans to assemble either of its Chinook heavy-lift helicopters or Apache attack choppers in India, even as it had geared to offer the possibility of manufacturing a fighter jet aircraft in the country. Furthermore, last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Microsofts CEO Satya Nadella, Googles CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabets CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page (the holding company of Google), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomms Executive Chairman Paul E. Jacobs, CISCOs John Chambers and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on his trip to the west coast of the US, a first of its own kind of trip for any Indian leader. Mr. Prime Ministers visit gave some key announcements and along with discussions on future possibilities of certain new technologies coming to India. Some key highlights of the PMs visit were:- 1. Google and Wifi at 500 Railway Stations: Google announced that it will help India set up base for free Wi-Fi at 500 railway stations. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that initially high speed Internet will be provided at 100 railway stations of India by end of 2016 and later to 400 more by the next year. 2. Microsoft low-cost broadband to 5 lakh villages: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also announced there that the company plans to partner with the Indian Government to bring in low-cost broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in India. 3. Qualcomm and investments for start-ups: Most important feature of Mr. Prime Ministers trip was that the Qualcomm a big investment giant for business ventures announced a $150 million (approximately Rs 9.8 billion) investment fund for start-ups in India via its Qualcomm Ventures. This is surely help to create new jobs in India for Indian youth same as the vision of Make in India umbrella strives to. 4. PM Modi and the meeting with Tesla Motors: The Company has announced two sets of lithium ion-based battery packs, the Powerwall for the home and Powerpack for business users in developing countries like India. Powerwall technology is a new battery by Tesla that will power an entire household. 5. Apple CEO Tim Cook and PM Modi: Albeit India being the expensive place in the global to buy Apple Inc. products the Prime Minister Modi also invited Apple to set up a manufacturing base in India and its CEO Tim Cook also responded in favour. Apple CEO was particularly interested in the whole App development economy, which he said could be a significantly important factor for entrepreneurship where individual app developers can just become part of the app universe. In spite of all these steps the governments much ambitious project Make in India is floundering due to the slow pace of the bank sanctions and the delay in disbursement of the margin money. According to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) the bank sanctions are quite slow during the first two quarters of the financial year which deters the fund release by the government and will result in the cuts in funds due to the serious non-utilization of the funds at the stipulated rate by the Finance Ministry. Till now the target for the year-on-year growth in credit with the Micro, Medium and Small Enterprises is to be fixed at 20 per cent per year, the growth in the MSEs credit during the 2014-15 in respect of the Public Sector Banks, Private Banks and Foreign Banks stood at the 13.3 per cent, 15.6 per cent, and 4.56 per cent, respectively indicating shortfalls. More so, The United States and India had always enjoyed robust bilateral cooperation in the field of Science and Technology. This collaboration has been vital in achieving a broad range of shared goals, including: sustaining economic growth and job creation, allowing our citizens to live longer, healthier lives, developing clean sources of energy, and protecting our environment for future generations. The U.S.-India Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in 2005, established the Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) to plan, coordinate, monitor, and facilitate bilateral cooperation in science and technology. The JCM generally provides bi-annually convened leaders from both countries to provide strategic guidance for our Science & Technology for the research and development areas initiatives. To realise the potential of science and technology, the U.S. and India maintain active engagement aimed at fostering cooperative cutting edge research and building public private partnerships that support technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship. The most important contribution of India and USA has been cooperation in clean energy, recognizing the need to address climate change, ensured mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that drives investment, job creation, and economic growth. A MoU was signed on as back as 2009 between Indian Prime Minister and US President had launched the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) under the U.S.-India Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change. The U.S.-India Joint Centre for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD) will conduct collaborative research and promote clean energy innovation in the area of energy efficiency in building with measurable results and significant reduction in energy use in both nations. Finally, USA agrees to the fact that India is an economic giant in South Asia and fastest growing economy in the world one with technology sector playing an exemplary role. Categorically, the Indian economy allows different kinds of industries and start ups to flourish and compete on their own- global scale, we (as Indians) can only hope that India and USA can ink more economic deals in future that can reap huge dividends, specifically focusing on uplifting the Medium and Small scale enterprises from low economic growth. Indias traditional industries like Cottage, Khadi and Jute can become special investment zones for American companies thereby promoting the very indigenous idea of Make In India campaign holistically successful. The 2015 September visit of PM Narendra Modi was counted as one of the most successful visits in recent years and India genuinely encourages more dialogue between the two nations at global forums on various other issues, other than economy itself.