US President Barack Obama promised India Inc during his address in Mumbai in November 2010 to work on fundamentally reforming the US export regime to allow greater cooperation with India in a range of high-tech sectors. Following through on the promise, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce published updates of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) that essentially have the following affects:
- Removal of 9 Indian space- and defence-related companies from the Entity List
- Removal of India from several country groups in the EAR that eliminates export licence requirements tied to India’s placement in those country groups
- Add India to a country group consisting of members of the Missile Technology Control Regime
“CII welcomes the effort of the US administration in removing 9 Indian organizations from the Entities List, including ISRO and DRDO. These first steps will go a long way in strengthening our strategic partnership, fostering heightened trust and boosting high tech trade.” said Kiran Pasricha, Deputy Director General, CII. “The resulting increase in US exports to India will also help plug in President Obama’s agenda of job growth,” she added.
While these are positive initial steps in the right direction, a lot more remains to be done in realizing the full potential of the US-India partnership in high technology. Ongoing initative like HTCG, Joint S&T Commission and recently launched Indo-US R&D Endowment Fund for Innovation can be leveraged in this direction and CII plays important role in all these initiatives. In the backdrop of the recent diversification of Offsets (DPP 2011) to Internal Security and Civil Aerospace, the modalities for technology transfer should to be made even more liberal/flexible. A fast Track process of Export Clearance Licenses for exports directed to India need to be put into place.
Reinforcing the message, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke will lead a business delegation on a high-tech trade mission to India in February 2011, visiting Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The delegation includes senior officials from the Export-Import Bank (EX-IM), the Trade Development Agency (TDA) and more over 20 US companies – 14 of them Small and Medium Enterprises.
“We look forward to welcoming Secretary Locke and his accompanying delegation to Aero India 2011, the largest Air Show in Asia. AERO INDIA 2011 will showcase the latest technologies in the field of Military and Civil aircrafts, vital components for aircraft engines, avionics systems & sub systems, airfield radars, etc in the defence & aerospace sector. For the first time civil aviation has been introduced in Aero India. There are more than 600 exhibitors including over 300 from overseas. It is expected that nearly 100 countries would be participating in Aero India 2011. Besides, there are eight country pavilions and 62 chalets.” said Kiran Pasricha, Deputy Director General, CII
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