Obama-Modi established the Dialogue process to improve synergy in business and commerce.
What has been done till now?
- Both side focus is to boost the renewable energy sector, the both sides are working on the US-India Energy Finance Initiatives, which is expected to mobilise upto $400 million by 2020
- To ease the defence production procedures, the Government of India has introduced a new Defence Procurement Procedure which has made it much simpler to take advantage of the immense opportunity for defence production in India
- The Government of India has shortlisted 33 cities for development as smart cities and will be collaborating with U.S on three of these
- FDI reforms: As part of FDI reform measures, the FDI policy has been further simplified and conditions relaxed
US Corporate sector flags following issues:
- Weak contract enforcement
- Unpredictable policy & Tax regime
- Opaque regulatory mechanism
- Rigid labour laws
- Drive against foreign NGO’s is also a sticking point
Issues raised by India:
- Fee hike in H1B and L1 visas
- Delay in BIT negotiations
NOTE: Use Strategic and Commercial Dialogue as a keyword in India-US relations answers. Don’t focus too much on factual information.