Big deals solidify Indo-US ties across spectrums

Three big deals in the last few days define India’s growing profile in the world economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile state visit to the United States underlines the wide approval of his policies by western nations, notwithstanding the criticism he regularly faces from the liberal establishment in these countries and on his home-turf. The country’s largest airline enjoying 53 per cent market share, IndiGo has set a world record having placed a mindboggling order for 500 A320 Family aircraft, which marks the biggest single purchase agreement in the history of commercial aviation. Three months back in March, IndiGo’s rival, Air India, had ordered 470 aircraft, 220 Boeing and 250 Airbus planes, at a cost of $70 billion. American memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology has announced $825-million investment in a new chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat. The company’s foray into India will be with an investment of $2.75 billion. While the Centre will put in 50 per cent, the Gujarat government will invest 20 per cent. And then there is a MoU that GE Aerospace, the US-based aircraft engine supplier, signed with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to produce fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The agreement includes the “potential joint production” of F414 engines in India. According to GE Aerospace officials, they are working with the US government to receive the export authorization. This deal is part of 0IAF’s Light Combat Aircraft (LAC) Mk2 programme.

Three different sectors but the thread that binds them is the realization on the part of both countries that they share not just cherished values but also mutually beneficial interests.

And it was the same realization that resulted in Modi’s state visit, which is a rare achievement considering that top Indian leaders have seldom been on a state visit to the United States. It must be personally gratifying for Modi as he was not allowed to enter the US in 2005, post-Godhra. Today, President Joe Biden is raising a toast for the same Modi.Needless to say, there is much more than economic ties to Modi’s visit. It also highlights the rising strategic and military relations between the world’s largest democracies. The threat posed by China in multifarious forms is seen with consternation in both New Delhi and Washington. The result was the Quad—a strategic tie-up between India, the US, the UK, and Australia.The GE-HAL is important in that context; the military technology that the US will share with India is the one that it shares only with the country’s most trusted friends. Evidently, a very large section of the American political and intellectual elite see India as a friend.

This is also the reason that global finance has blessed the two humongous aircraft deals. Modi is doing well to bring India closer to the US.