The new big ideas between India and the US could be exchanges in education and cooperation in space, even as the Ministry of External Affairs, on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US from November 22-26, prepares the ground for the opening of new Indian consulates in Atlanta and Seattle.
The government is keen that the US finishes its paperwork, including those related to property and taxation, enabling the PM to announce the opening of the two consulates in the US. Officials said such an announcement would tie in with Dr Singh's avowed desire to promote "people-to-people interaction" between India and the US.
Keeping with the theme of "humanising the relationship," and not restricting it to "grand, intellectual and strategic themes" such as nuclear non-proliferation, space cooperation or even confabulations over Pakistan and China, both Delhi and Washington are hoping that ideas like education, clean energy, food security and agriculture and health -- besides, opening of the two consulates -- will energise the relationship across the spectrum.
Atlanta and Seattle were actually picked for new consulate sites by India's former ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, because of their geographical locations, their role in growing US trade, as well as the burgeoning of the Indian community (especially in Seattle, a hub of IT-related growth) in those cities and their hinterland.
But, it seems, protocol and property-related matters came in the way of the resolution of the matter. The usual Indian insistence that all administrative matters be dealt with "reciprocally" did not apply in this case, as both India and the US currently have four consulates each, besides head missions, in each other's territory.
India already has consulates in New York, San Francisco, Houston and Chicago -- besides the embassy in Washington DC -- while the US has consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, besides its embassy in New Delhi. The announcement for the opening of the Hyderabad consulate was made by then US President George Bush during his India visit in 2006, after none other than the PM himself intervened to cut through mounds of bureaucratic red-tape.
And while the consulates may not occupy the top agenda when Dr Singh and Obama meet on November 24, officials say they could be a great conversation-starter when the PM meets the Indian community on November 25.
As for education, sources in both the Indian and US establishments confirmed that with nearly 100,000 Indian students travelling to the US every year, 'education exchanges' could become the new buzzword in the Indo-US relationship, thereby giving millions of Indians the chance to participate in the bilateral bonanza.
In keeping with the successful, recent visit of HRD minister Kapil Sibal to the US, where he announced the setting up of an Indo-US Education Council, it seems both governments are now looking at the possibility of exchanges, at the student and faculty levels, to push the relationship ahead.
According to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, "there could be joint research and training between Indian and US universities in areas like food security, agriculture, clean energy, etc, besides other exchanges."
Business Standard has already reported that Sibal, while cautioning private universities abroad about not just focusing on the profit motive in India, also met top administrators at Harvard, Yale, MIT and Boston University, and assured them that a range of opportunities in the education sector existed.
While the US produced 75,000 engineers annually, Bangalore alone produced as many as 65,000 in the same period, Sibal had said, quipping, "the early bird catches the worm".
With the government setting up 14 innovation universities over the next five years, Sibal said he wanted some US universities to partner India in creating the "architecture" of some of these universities.
On space, while a signature on the Technology Safeguards Agreement during the visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in July meant that Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launches could use satellites and satellite components owned by the US government and academic institutions or third-country space agencies, Isro was not allowed to launch US or third-country commercial satellites.
Both sides now hope that the joint exploration of space for peaceful purposes, as well as commercial exploitation, can be cleared during the PM's visit.
