India promises level playing field to US nuclear firms

Noting that India will need to invest more than $1 trillion on infrastructure to continue on the high growth trajectory, New Delhi has promised US companies a level playing field, including in the area of nuclear energy.

“In order to continue on the high growth trajectory, India will need to invest more than $1 trillion in the coming years in building a world class infrastructure that could cater to the demands of a billion plus population,” Indian ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao said here Friday.

“A vital input to achieving the ambitious growth targets that we have set for ourselves would be energy,” she said in a wide ranging talk on “An India-US Partnership with people at its core” at the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, India-South Asia Programme.

Noting that that nuclear energy could help India meet its energy requirements in an environmentally sustainable manner Rao said: “There are immense opportunities for US companies in this sector” and “on its part, the Government of India is committed to provide a level playing field for all our international partners.”

Describing growing economic partnership as “another central driver of our relations,” Rao noted a number of US firms are capitalising on the large pool of skilled engineers, scientists and researchers in India.

“Two-way trade in goods and services continues to grow steadily reaching over $100 billion last year. The US businesses are becoming strong partners in India’s economic growth story; and Indian businesses are creating value, wealth and jobs in the United States,” she said.

Indian companies are now contributing strongly to local State economies in the US with a presence in 43 States and having invested over $26 billion in the last 5 years in several key areas of the economy, in manufacturing as also in services, Rao said.

India’s IT industry has in particular been a strong player in establishing value based mutually beneficial partnerships, she said noting Indian IT companies employ an estimated over 100,000 people in the US and the Indian IT industry supports over 280,000 jobs indirectly out of which about 200,000 are with US residents.

Noting that India-US “strategic partnership has global significance,” Rao said: “Our leaders have laid out a strategic vision for one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century. Our task is to advance this partnership, and impart it with further meaning and substance.”