India-US relations: a vision for the future, Joint PCIP-ORF report

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Click on files at Indiancivilization

Click on us-india.pdf

 

Report by Joint US-India Task Force-"India-US Relations: A Vision

for

the Future."

 

Mira Kamdar <Mirakamdar@a...>

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

Here is the URL for the press release of the recently published

joint

bilateral task force of the Pacific Council and the Observer

Research

Foundation on "India-US Relations: A Vision for the Future."

 

 

Led by Ambassador Richard Celeste and Ambassador Abid Hussain with

core participation by Ashley Tellis, Rafiq Dossani, Ian Lesser, Dan

Sneider and, yes, myself this is the first truly bilateral report of

its kind. The report stresses the importance of the people-to-people

aspect of an increasingly important relationship.

 

Copies are available on the Pacific Council's website at the URL

<http://www.pacificcouncil.org> and a very limited set of bound

copies are also available.

 

I will be available for comment after August 25.

 

Please disseminate to any parties you know who may be interested.

 

Thanks,

Mira Kamdar

Senior Fellow

World Policy Institute

The New School

Core Member, Bilateral Task Force

 

First Joint Study Finds Strategic U.S.-India Partnership Emerging

LOS ANGELES, Calif., June 28, 2005 - For the first time, U.S.-India

relations have been examined by a joint task force of noted research

organizations from both countries - the West Coast's Pacific Council

on International Policy and India's Observer Research Foundation. The

new study, released today, found that decades of suspicion are giving

way to improved strategic relations facilitated by factors such as

India's long-standing commitment to education and science, the

opening

of the Indian economy to global competition, the migration of

influential and entrepreneurial Indians to the U.S., especially the

West Coast, and the global effects of the information technology

revolution.

On sensitive geopolitical issues, the study found that the expansion

of U.S.-India economic and cultural ties has led to increased

cooperation over security issues that have proved difficult in the

past. Cultural engagement, driven by Indian migration to the U.S. and

an explosion of Indian cinema and music, has improved geopolitical

relations, according to study findings.

The study also found American concerns regarding the loss of jobs in

software and information technology hardware companies to lower-cost

firms in India are unfounded. The mutual benefits of business

relations between the U.S. and India far outweigh the costs thought

to

accompany the outsourcing practices of American businesses. However,

to ensure an even playing field, the study calls for common standards

for skilled professionals in both countries and continuing regulatory

reform in India.

The report, authored by former U.S. Ambassador to India and Ohio

Governor Richard Celeste, and India's former ambassador to the U. S.,

Abid Hussain, recommends the following measures are needed to

strengthen the emerging U.S.-India partnership:

• Expanding commerce between the two nations;

• Promoting cooperation in science and technology;

• Strengthening cooperation in healthcare and education;

• Removing barriers to strategic cooperation, particularly in the

area of technology development; and

• Building new constituencies through culture and Indian migration

to

deepen mutual understanding.

"The Pacific Council undertook this study to increase our

understanding of and to strengthen relations between India and the

U.S.," said Pacific Council Board Co-chairman and former U.S.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher. "We did so because Indian

Americans play a prominent role in California and the Pacific

Northwest. Furthermore, burgeoning trade and technology ties exist

between Bangalore and Silicon Valley, and Hollywood and 'Bollywood'."

The Pacific Council is currently engaged in several other projects,

including an extensive study to be released in 2006 of the impact of

Islam and other religions on U.S. foreign policy and American

relations with other countries, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning author

and MacArthur Foundation Fellow Jack Miles, Ph.D.

"The Pacific Council's mission is to foster greater understanding

among U.S. and Pacific Rim business and government leaders and to

contribute a distinctive West Coast perspective to policy debates.

This study furthers both goals admirably," said the council's newly

elected president, Geoffrey Garrett, Ph.D.

See the report here

# # #

 

Based in Los Angeles, the Pacific Council on International Policy is

an independent, not-for-profit, international leadership forum

established in 1995 in cooperation with the Council on Foreign

Relations and the University of Southern California. Its 1,290

members

seek to promote better understanding and more effective action by

private and public sector leaders from the western United States and

the Pacific Rim.

http://www.pacificcouncil.org/public/publications/press/pressrelease_

062905.asp

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