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Mr. Bush’s Business Trip to India

It was India Shining and now, it’s Incredible India; no doubt why the world’s largest democracy, India Inc., is said to be rolling. A country with a population of more than a billion, pompously boasting of an economic growth of 8.1%, is very well a vivid explanation of the reasons why India Inc. is important to the world in both economic and military facades. And no doubt why, the President of The United States of America, Mr. George W Bush, was too keen on his visit to this Indian sub – continent.

Mr. George W Bush is the fifth US President to visit India. The first presidential visit was that of Dwight D Eisenhower in 1959 when he spent four days in the country on his 11-nation tour. Then came Mr. Richard M Nixon in 1969 followed by Mr. Jimmy Carter in 1978. After that, it was Mr. Bill Clinton who brought the Indo-US ties closer. Mr. Bush has taken it forward.

As big deals were already presumed, the ones that made news have created history.

In the coming years 14 nuclear facilities would be designed for civilian purposes and 8 for military – including the state of art fast breeders currently being developed for higher efficiency in the enrichment of fissile material. The interesting point being the absence of IAEA safeguards for the military ones. India would also be supplied with fuel for the above. Here, Mr. Bush has over ruled his advisors who insisted on a longer list of civilian nuclear reactors.

And for all this, the president will press the Congress back home to approve the changes necessary in the laws to make them India – friendly. Alongside the US laws, the IAEA will also be pushed forward to tune it’s setups in favor of India, regardless of the fact that this might well be in opposition to the Non – Proliferation Treaty which India has not signed. Mr. Bush is out to bend the NTP by providing India with the knowledge of nuclear weapon technology. This is in hostility to the NTP that prevents the flow of the nuclear know-how out of the sacred 5 permanent members of the United Nations.

Apart from the nuclear deal, the economic transactions discussed were imperative enough to give the much awaited boom to the Indo – US relationship. The bilateral trade will be pushed to $50 billion decided as a three year target. The promise of many more million dollars to be pumped into the Indian agricultural industry is another fact that elucidated the depth of the bilateral interaction the two countries have made. The declared smooth functioning of the outsourcing business is just an icing on the cake. These among several others are the decisions made on the mutual understanding and futuristic co-operation between the two democracies.

As the world behaves on the principle of reasoning, we all are expected to know why the United States of America is being too kind to a third world common wealth country, India. It is necessary that we are au fait with the gains America plans to make with the above said dealings that profoundly show gains to the Indian economy.

There are 300 million middle class people in India, as large as the American population, who like to wear Levis jeans, aspire to own a Ford car, and frequent McDonalds and Pizza Hut outlets. Consumers like Sharille Rodrigues, 20, a call-center employee at 24/7 Customer in Bangalore, are at the heart of that growth. Rodrigues, who has provided technical support for a U.S. company for the past two years, said she loves Mars chocolate, drinks a lot of Pepsi, frequents KFC with friends, uses L'Oreal shampoo, and wears Revlon and Maybelline makeup and Nike shoes. She says she enjoys shopping with her Citibank credit card.

Does she buy Indian brands? Rodrigues pauses and then confesses, "Actually, no, not that many."

The US president has asked India to liberalize more rapidly especially in the fast-growing services such as banking, insurance and retail. The finance minister has been told to remove the FDI cap that acts as a friction to the American companies so that these fully profit-based organizations can grab a hold of the Indian consumer – good domestic markets. These companies will make sure that they get a good share of pie for themselves and will surely push the Congress toward amending the legislation in India’s favor. America wants to gain from this 300 million strong middle class Indian market.

It’s now more than 30 years since US scientists have built a nuclear power plant and they have huge quantities of fuel to sell. It’s obvious what they might plan to gain from the nuclear deals. Then there are those American companies ready to sell weapons and fighter jets to India to seize a chunk of the 89,000 crore rupee Indian defense budget.
No question about the money they intend to make if the two countries get closer.

The 900 men accompanying the US president to India comprised a big number of Business Associates willing to invest billions in India to make billions in return. The board members of ISB, Hyderabad consists of the billionaire fraternity of India and no doubt why Mr. Bush gave a visit to that place.

In addition from all the money benefits US makes in India, it gets a powerful friend in the Asian continent having two permanent members of UN – Russia and China. India becomes an American strong-hold in military terms and economic aspects. It will also force India hard to vote against Iran to prevent it from perusing their nuclear ambitions. India’s geographic closeness to Afghanistan and Pakistan too benefits the US.

So amidst all that that goes on in the news, it’s eventually the United States of America that’s going to make the most of Mr. Bush’s visit to India. The political and economic gains hand in hand with the military ones, makes it clear beyond any doubt the intelligent and monopolizing goals of Mr. Bush and the government of United States. So it can well be said that Mr. Bush was on a business trip to the Indian sub – continent than anything else.

© 2006 ZUBAIR