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Site to promote Indo-US commercial ties goes up

The VAHI grew out of an idea originally proposed by Clark and former US Ambassador to India Frank Wisner. Both recognise India as one of the 10

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big emerging markets and thought it would be useful to give Indians and Americans interested in doing business with one another, a place where they could get timely, accurate and up-to-date information on the business climate in the other country.

Rather than housing the information in a single physical location, it was decided to establish a special Web site which interested parties in the countries, and elsewhere, can access whenever, and from wherever, they find it convenient.

VAHI is divided into two principal sections: 'Doing business in India' and 'Doing business in the United States'. Each is in turn subdivided to provide users with information on a wide variety of topics ranging from laws governing foreign investment to taxation and legal systems, from the names of top corporations, trade organisations and government contacts at both the state and national level to information about education and tourism. Additionally, the Web site contains information about the US-India Business Council (Washington, DC) and the American Business Council (New Delhi).

Technical and financial contributions to the site have been made by the US-India Business Council, the American Business Council, Tata Information Systems (Bangalore), Tata Interactive Systems (Bombay) and the IBM Corporation as well as the US Commercial Service and the US Information Service in New Delhi.

Through the VAHI site, users can also access the US Embassy New Delhi Home Page, which contains information about the American embassy and its consulates throughout India as well as on visas, embassy services, and studying in the United States. The embassy home page, maintained by the USIS, New Delhi, also provides the texts of important speeches by US government officials, transcripts of news briefings, and links to USIA's Electronic Journals, with article on and analyses of US Foreign and economic policy.

The Embassy site can be accessed independently of VAHI at http://www.usia.gov/posts/delhi.html.

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