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India in the next five years will mobilize up to USD 100 million in public and private sector funds to
facilitate research and development in breakthrough technologies. Several proposals have been
received by the Centre, and the first awards are likely to be announced within this month.
The two governments, Rao said, thus engaged intensively to increase collaboration and unleash the full
potential of US-India innovation. "With a strong foundation in place, the two nations are uniquely
positioned to pool their talent to address what President Obama's innovation strategy called the Grand
Challenges of the 21st Century," she said.
"In this context, it would be beneficial if we could work also on a framework that would help increase
the mobility of high skilled workers across the two countries. In these difficult economic times,
sometimes we do hear the voices of protectionism," she said.
"We all have stakes in ensuring that such sentiments do not affect the positive trajectory of our
engagement keeping the long-term perspective in mind. What we need to promote is a dynamic
network of partnerships and underpin them through bilateral investments as well as through technology
cooperation," Rao said.
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US, India to sign $8 billion defense deals: Envoy
US companies are poised to sign defense deals totaling $8 billion with India, US Ambassador Nancy
Powell said on Friday at her first public speech since arriving in New Delhi this month. Powell did not
specify which companies she was talking about or when the deals would be signed, but embassy officials
said she was referring to negotiations that include about a dozen Apache helicopters along with engines
for Indian jets.
"We are poised to sign an additional $8 billion in direct commercial and foreign military sales," Powell
said. "As we share more common equipment, our bilateral defense ties will become stronger." India is
the world's largest arms importer and plans to spend close to about $100 billion over the next 10 years
to upgrade its largely Soviet-era equipment.
US companies including Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co are some of the contractors
looking to grab a share of India's planned military spending. Industrial conglomerate Honeywell
International Inc. is offering engines for the Indian Air force’s Jaguar fighter aircraft.
Powell said improving bilateral trade and investment was her main objective as ambassador, mentioning
US concerns about tariff and non-tariff barriers and a new retroactive tax law as obstacles in the
relationship. Hoping to get a bigger slice in the pie of massive Indian defense modernization efforts, the
US has said the level of its willingness to share defense technologies with India has never been higher
than it is now.
"The level of our willingness to share technology with India has never been higher," Andrew Shapiro,
Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, said.
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Relax norms on import of wine, toys, and cosmetics: US to India
The US has sought from India that it relax norms on a wide range of “technical barriers to trade”
covering areas such as toys, cosmetics, wine and telecom equipment. In its latest report, the United
States Trade Representatives (USTR) Monday said the US will press India to revise its labeling
requirements for food and distilled spirits in 2012.