It's true, India has emerged

If one single statement of President Obama captures his trip to India signifying a strategic shift in Indo- US relations, it is this: “India is not simply emerging: India has already emerged.”

The question is: what prompted Obama to make this pithy statement?

In recent years, India has slowly but steadily moved on to the high table of global engagement. Our role in G20 in mediating on conflicting positions between major nations and taking an independent position on the emerging global architecture have been acknowledged.

Another manifestation of India’s rising power has been the increase in India’s quota share in IMF . As for the WTO, India has steadily become a deciding voice. On climate change, Copenhagen had a defining moment when India became the fulcrum in negotiating between major pressure groups to save the conference from falling apart. Now there is talk of India becoming a part of an expanding G8 , while India’s leadership is being sought in APEC , OECD and International Energy Agency . There is even talk of India’s inclusion in the ‘Five Eyes’, a five-country grouping which currently share sensitive counter-terrorism information with ‘interoperability (secure exchange)’.

Mr Obama’s statement reflects a culmination of all of these multidimensional global developments vis-à-vis India. Also significant is President Obama’s avoidance of the controversial ‘O’ word — outsourcing, during his visit. In fact, poignantly he said: “I did not make outsourcing a bogey man during my trip.”

Here, we must not forget that in his scintillating biography Audacity of Hope, written much before he became President (in 2006), he spoke of an indelible impression on his mind when he visited Galesburg. A Maytag Plant of 1,600 employees had just been closed because it migrated to Mexico. On his drive back to Chicago from Galesburg, he tried to imagine the plight of a worker Tim. He ruminated over “Tim’s desperation: no job, an ailing son, his savings running out”.

Mr Obama added: “Those were the stories you missed on a private jet at 40,000 feet.” Given these heart-wrenching feelings on outsourcing, it must have taken Herculean effort on the part of Obama to move from ‘stopping outsourcing’ to the mantra of ‘fresh job creation in the US’ as the theme of his India visit.

He is aware, as elucidated in the Ficci-Maryland University study, that Indian corporates acquired as many as 372 American firms and created 127 new companies (greenfield) during 2004-09. Of these, 85 companies alone supported 40,000 jobs for the US workforce. It is little known that the aerospace giant, Boeing, alone will be selling $28 billion worth of aircraft to Air India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways , which will create 280,000 jobs in the US.

This, aside from the 50,000 jobs talked about in the media from deals worth $10 billion signed during his visit.

Obviously, the table is turning. From the days of PL480, when our food security depended on wheat production in Nebraska, we have arrived at the point where Indian corporates are playing the role of ‘white knights’ in shining armour for the US economy.

Aside from the bonhomie and dancing to Bollywood and folk tunes, there were serious exercises on institution building between the US and India. We now expect to see a joint clean energy research & development centre, a global disease detection centre and greater US participation in the global centre for nuclear energy partnership.

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