US companies have made substantial contributions to India's progress, and they stand ready to do more: Atul Keshap

Washington: American companies have made substantial contributions to India’s progress, and they stand ready to do more, the head of a top American business advocacy group has said.

Addressing a gathering of top American corporate leadership at the annual India Ideas Summit here ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Official State visit to the US on June 22, US India Business Council (USIBC) president Atul Keshap said that American companies support India's ambitions and align with its national interests.

“Our companies have made substantial contributions to India's progress, and they stand ready to do more. We understand the challenges, and we are ready to adapt, to listen, and to respond,” he said.

“We are here to offer world-class products, choices, technologies, and services that support India's ambitions and align with its national interests. Indeed, the rise of India in world affairs is good for Indians, good for America, and good for free people everywhere,” he said.

Keshap said in his recent visits to India. He has witnessed a nation on the move, building, innovating, and growing with unprecedented vigour.

“The metro lines, highways, and airports that are sprouting across the country symbolise the aspirations of its people and their journey towards a more prosperous future,” he said.

“And, at the most fundamental level of humanity, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, food, and healthcare are transforming the lives of hundreds of millions and uplifting so many out of poverty. What is happening today in India is truly a modern miracle,” said the USIBC president.

The former American diplomat who played a key role in strengthening the India-US relationship, Keshap, during his two-year tenure as USIBC president, witnessed US-India relations transform and approach what a friend of his has been calling escape velocity.

“Not too long ago, it seemed that very real disagreements could take the relationship off course. But our civilisational partnership, founded on friendship, trust, and mutual affection, proved resilient. We are working together in more ways than ever, and the G2G and B2B activity ahead of this State Visit has shown the world that our two free and democratic nations are in it for the haul and are determined to make the world safe for free enterprise and free people,” he said.

Keshap said it is his belief that by strengthening the economic ties between the US and India, the world’s oldest and largest democracies, and reaching our ambition of USD 500 billion in bilateral trade, they can demonstrate to the world that the future of the world will be anchored by democracy and freedom.