The United States has defended its decision for ambassador to India Nancy Powell to meet the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, arguing that this is part of its effort of increased engagement with Indian leaders.

A day after the US state department confirmed that Powell would meet Modi in Gandhinagar later this week, its spokesperson told media persons on Tuesday that all relevant people required to take a decision were involved in the process, which basically overturned the nine-year-old US policy of non-engagement with Modi.

However, the official did not confirm if US Secretary of State John Kerry or US President Barack Obama were involved in it.

"These decisions don't always rise up to every highest level. But certainly, all relevant individuals who needed to weigh in weighed in, and agreed that it was certainly an appropriate meeting to have," State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told media persons at her daily news conference.

"We are often engaged in concentrated outreach to senior political and business leaders. We began doing that months ago, if not years ago -- in different scales, of course -- to highlight and continue our US-India relationship. There has been no changes in our policy per se. This is an effort in that engagement," Psaki said.