OBAMA IN INDIA: Focus on Economy and Security

BUSINESS — By MainStreetMantra Desk on November 7, 2010 at 3:46 am

FUN TIME IN MUMBAI

US President Barack Obama has announced $10bn (£6.2bn) in new trade deals with India.

He was speaking in Mumbai at the start of a 10-day Asian tour designed to boost US exports and create jobs. Obama also announced an easing of US export controls and rejected caricatures of India as a nation of “call centres.”

Visiting the scene of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, he said India and the US were united against terrorism. “We will never forget,” he said at a memorial to victims of the attack by Islamic militants.

The outdoor memorial is a fountain with floating flowers just off the lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where he and his wife are staying as guests.

He described the hotel as a symbol of India’s “strength and resilience”. He also wrote in a memorial book: “The United States stands in solidarity with all of Mumbai and all of India in working to eradicate the scourge of terrorism.”

The White House said the deals for new export business with India would help to support around 54,000 jobs in the United States.

• The sale by Boeing of 30 new 737 aircraft to private Indian airline SpiceJet. The White House says this will help support over 12,000 US jobs.
• Preliminary agreement had been reached on the Indian purchase of 10 Boeing C-17s military transport planes.
• The sale by GE of fighter 107 F414 jet engines to the Indian military.
• A separate deal with GE worth $500m (£309m) for the sale of six heavy duty gas turbines and three steam turbines to India’s Reliance Energy Ltd.
• Harley-Davidson plans a new plant in India to assemble American-made motorcycle kits.
• The White House said India had identified GE subsidiary GE Transportation, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Electro-Motive Diesel, of LaGrange, Illinois, a unit of Caterpillar Inc, as bidders to supply Indian railways with over 1,000 diesel locomotives over 10 years.

The president said the relationship between the US and India was one of the “defining and indispensable partnerships of the 21st Century.