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India is seen as an economic competitor to the United States. Members of the U.S. Congress routinely
point to the number of high-tech graduates being produced by China and India to sound warnings that
the U.S. risks losing its technical leadership unless more American students pursue math, science and
engineering careers.
However, the reality is higher education is India is uneven, as Indian officials have stressed to their U.S.
counterparts.
Apart from a few elite institutions, the vast majority of colleges and universities churn out graduates
who lack the sought-after skills of problem solving and abstract analysis, according to a recent World
Bank survey of Indian employers. The skills that the graduates possess in abundance - the ability to
memorize facts and figures - is less valuable than the higher-order skills in today's global workplace,
World Bank economist Andreas Blom told attendees at the Penn State conference.
It is to develop a higher-education system that will produce graduates equipped with higher-order skills
that the Indian government is turning to the U.S. for help.
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US firms finding ways to move ahead on civil nuclear deal with India
American companies are now finding ways to move ahead on commercial negotiations with India on
the civilian nuclear deal, a top Obama Administration official said on Wednesday.
"On the civil nuclear deal, we are pleased US companies are finding ways to move ahead with
commercial negotiations," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake
lawmakers at a Congressional hearing.
Blake's remarks in his testimony before House Committee on Foreign Affairs Sub Committee on the
Middle East and South Asia came immediately after a key American Congressman raised concerns over
the non-implementation of the civil nuclear deal. The historic civil nuclear deal has not been
implemented, said Congressman Steve Chabot, Chairman of the Sub-Committee.
"To date the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement hasn't met the US commercial expectations due to the
nuclear liability law passed by the Indian Parliament which essentially shuts-out US companies," he
said.
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U.S wants India to lift import ban on dairy products
The US has sought to impress upon India to lift the ban on American poultry products, arguing that they
do not pose a human health risk as is being asserted by India.
“The United States maintains that the presence of Para tuberculosis in dairy products does not pose a
human health risk, and India should not make elimination of this bacterium a condition for issuing a
sanitary export certificate for US dairy products,” the US Trade Representatives (USTR) has said in a
report.
Since 2003, it said, India has imposed unwarranted SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) requirements on
dairy imports, which have essentially precluded US access to India’s dairy market, one of the largest in
the world.For example, India requires the US Government to certify that any US-origin milk destined for
India has been treated to ensure the destruction of Para tuberculosis, which according to India, is linked
to Crohn’s Disease.