Bangalore, 5th August, 2015: Gateway House launched a book on The India-U.S. Partnership: $1 Trillion by 2030, authored by Nish Acharya, a visiting fellow at Gateway House and previously director of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Obama administration, presenting ideas for taking trade between the two countries from $120 billion to $1 trillion in the next 16 years.
The timing of the book is fortuitous, coming as it does a month before the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Silicon Valley after addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. In Silicon Valley, Prime Minister Modi is expected to address the large Indian diaspora community and meet with technology entrepreneurs.
Technology has always been the cornerstone for a vigorous India-U.S. partnership. Indian American co-founders form nearly 33% of Silicon Valley start-ups and account for about 7% of American physicians – the community has contributed significantly to the entrepreneurial, small business and healthcare sectors in the U.S. Gateway House, a foreign policy think tank based in Mumbai, India, has published extensive research and analyses over the past two years on finding innovative approaches to elevate the bilateral through a robust technology partnership. This book brings together the many strings that bind the India-U.S. bilateral, especially in technology, in private business, and through the NGO sector.
The author Nish Acharya has interviewed 62 leaders[1] of business, non-profit, government, media, civil society and academia, who spoke on the record about how the India-U.S. relationship should move forward – the first comprehensive leadership survey about bilateral relations between the two countries.
The book takes a deeper look at the activity between companies, universities, and non-profits in India and the U.S, and highlights 31 case studies of strategic collaboration, corporate and non-profit models, and new and emerging technologies that can really charge the relationship between the two countries. The examples, presented as case studies, include the impact of technologies like 3D printing on India’s villages, e-commerce ventures like FlipKart, and that of game-changing, market-entry products made by companies such as Gilead Pharmaceuticals. The book also studies the paths of successful NGOS like, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Infosys, TiE, Vaatsalya Hospitals, and Sulabh International, among others.
The book launch event focused on four key ideas, detailed in the book:
- In order to tackle India’s development challenges, it is necessary to create a “surge” – i.e. rapid and intense deployment of talented individuals and technical experts to address critical and immediate challenges – in areas such as infrastructure, healthcare, energy and agriculture.
- Leading and innovating new technologies can create millions of new jobs and opportunities in India. Towards this, India needs to build a “Silicon Swadesh” – a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem, modelled on Silicon Valley, to support home-grown innovation and entrepreneurship across several Indian cities.
- India needs to build a ramp for poverty alleviation i.e. a ramp which would enable the 42% of Indians that live under the World Bank poverty line of $1.25 a day to access the services of NGOs, social entrepreneurs and microfinance organisations. These organisations are able to identify problems as well as scale solutions, but they are unable to build sustainable systems and expertise to achieve a lasting impact.
- The country needs to take advantage of next generation technologies for which it is well suited, such as synthetic biology, 3D printing, mobile, social and big data, to create an industrial base in India from which products and services can be sold and jobs created.
The book was launched in Bangalore, in collaboration with the United Way of Bengaluru, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, and Citizence & Equal Innovation Institute. The day-long event featured Mohandas Pai, Chairman of the Manipal Group; Bunty Bohra, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs India; and Phillip A. Min, U.S. Consul General, Chennai, among others.
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Reetika Joshi
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Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations is a foreign policy think tank in Mumbai, India, established to engage India’s leading corporations and individuals in debate and scholarship on India’s foreign policy and the nation’s role in global affairs. Gateway House is independent, non-partisan and membership-based.
[1] Some of these leaders include: Arun Kumar, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce; Arvind Panagariya, Professor, Columbia University; Ashley Tellis, Analyst, Carnegie Endowment for Peace; Bunty Bohra, CEO, Goldman Sachs India; David Lobo, Senior Vice President, General Electric; Desh Deshpande, Chairman; Sparta Group and Deshpande Foundation; Jayant Sinha, Member of Indian Parliament and former CEO, Omidyar Network India; Kapil Sharma, Vice president, Wipro North America; Mitul Desai, former Senior Advisor to the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia; Mohandas Pai, Chairman, The Manipal Group; Narayana Murthy, Founder and former CEO, Infosys; Nisha Biswal, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia; Nitin Nohria, Dean, Harvard Business School; Sunil Wadhwani, former Chairman, iGate.