Washington: U.S. President George W. Bush will share the spotlight on his trip to India this week with corporate moguls from both countries who will try to cut India's red tape and intensify the country's economic reforms.
Troubles implementing a landmark 2005 accord to give India access to U.S. nuclear equipment have dominated headlines in the run-up to Bush's trip. But experts say that focus is too narrow to capture the full drama of rapidly warming ties between the two countries.
When Bush hosted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington last July, they launched the U.S.-India CEO Forum. The group unites executives from U.S. giants such as Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Honeywell International and Xerox Corp. with Indian majors such as the Tata Group, Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies.
This week the panel of 10 executives from each country will publish a major report on cutting red tape and tariffs.
Americans are likely to recommend reforms of the labor, financial, retail sectors and seek Indian commitments to improve intellectual property protection and uphold the sanctity of contracts, analysts said.
"Bureaucratic regulations, rules and procedures are numerous and nontransparent, adding to the cost of doing business; the tax structure is complex and permits inefficient resource use and privatization is proceeding too slowly," said Daniella Markheim, a trade analyst at the Heritage Institute.
The 2005 Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International ranked India 2.9 on a scale of 10 in which zero represented "highly corrupt."
Land of Business opportunity
The ranks of American firms keen to serve India's rapidly growing and opening market include not only nuclear power equipment suppliers but also defense contractors, bankers, agribusinesses, telecommunications firms and even Hollywood.
With a middle class of 320 million people out of a population of 1 billion and average economic growth of 7 percent in the past decade, India is a "tremendously vital and very important market" said Boeing Co. official Tom Pickering.
Pickering, a retired U.S. diplomat who serves as Boeing's senior vice president for international relations, played a role in a recent $1.4 billion deal to sell India's SpiceJet 10 Boeing 737 planes and take 10 more options on planes.
"It's not so much an emerging market, as it is in parts already emerged and in other parts still coming along," said Pickering, who says Boeing sees India and several other giants rising to one day match Japan and Europe as aircraft markets.
"Our economic relationship with India is transforming across the board," senior State Department official Josette Shiner told scholars and reporters in Washington.
"Although our trade and investment with India is 10 percent of what it is between the U.S. and China, this is changing," she said, noting that two-way trade rose to $30 billion last year from $10 billion in 1997.
Powered by sales of aircraft and telecommunications gear, U.S. exports to India, the 22nd biggest market for American goods, rose 30 percent last year. India boosted its sales to America, its biggest customer, by 20 percent, U.S. data show.
While the corporate push will focus mostly on cutting down on government interference in business, India requires a "major government drive" to build infrastructure, said U.S.-India Business Council director Richard Rossow.
"The one area where India really falls short in comparison to China is on infrastructure, whether it's electricity availability, roads, ports or airports," he said.
Pickering says U.S. businesses are encouraged by the continuity in reform programs over the past decade, even as India changed governing parties.
"This ability to build on the foundations of reform is very, very significant to all of us who look ahead and see India as a great opportunity," he told Reuters.
Troubles implementing a landmark 2005 accord to give India access to U.S. nuclear equipment have dominated headlines in the run-up to Bush's trip. But experts say that focus is too narrow to capture the full drama of rapidly warming ties between the two countries.
When Bush hosted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington last July, they launched the U.S.-India CEO Forum. The group unites executives from U.S. giants such as Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Honeywell International and Xerox Corp. with Indian majors such as the Tata Group, Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies.
This week the panel of 10 executives from each country will publish a major report on cutting red tape and tariffs.
Americans are likely to recommend reforms of the labor, financial, retail sectors and seek Indian commitments to improve intellectual property protection and uphold the sanctity of contracts, analysts said.
"Bureaucratic regulations, rules and procedures are numerous and nontransparent, adding to the cost of doing business; the tax structure is complex and permits inefficient resource use and privatization is proceeding too slowly," said Daniella Markheim, a trade analyst at the Heritage Institute.
The 2005 Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International ranked India 2.9 on a scale of 10 in which zero represented "highly corrupt."
Land of Business opportunity
The ranks of American firms keen to serve India's rapidly growing and opening market include not only nuclear power equipment suppliers but also defense contractors, bankers, agribusinesses, telecommunications firms and even Hollywood.
With a middle class of 320 million people out of a population of 1 billion and average economic growth of 7 percent in the past decade, India is a "tremendously vital and very important market" said Boeing Co. official Tom Pickering.
Pickering, a retired U.S. diplomat who serves as Boeing's senior vice president for international relations, played a role in a recent $1.4 billion deal to sell India's SpiceJet 10 Boeing 737 planes and take 10 more options on planes.
"It's not so much an emerging market, as it is in parts already emerged and in other parts still coming along," said Pickering, who says Boeing sees India and several other giants rising to one day match Japan and Europe as aircraft markets.
"Our economic relationship with India is transforming across the board," senior State Department official Josette Shiner told scholars and reporters in Washington.
"Although our trade and investment with India is 10 percent of what it is between the U.S. and China, this is changing," she said, noting that two-way trade rose to $30 billion last year from $10 billion in 1997.
Powered by sales of aircraft and telecommunications gear, U.S. exports to India, the 22nd biggest market for American goods, rose 30 percent last year. India boosted its sales to America, its biggest customer, by 20 percent, U.S. data show.
While the corporate push will focus mostly on cutting down on government interference in business, India requires a "major government drive" to build infrastructure, said U.S.-India Business Council director Richard Rossow.
"The one area where India really falls short in comparison to China is on infrastructure, whether it's electricity availability, roads, ports or airports," he said.
Pickering says U.S. businesses are encouraged by the continuity in reform programs over the past decade, even as India changed governing parties.
"This ability to build on the foundations of reform is very, very significant to all of us who look ahead and see India as a great opportunity," he told Reuters.