US visit: Will friendly stroll of Modi-Obama prove beneficial for India?

After lots of hoopla and sizzle, much awaited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit has come to an end. The trip was packed with all the right punches right from Modi's fasting during Navratri, his address at the Madison Square Garden and display of assertive diplomacy at Council of foreign relations.

Apart from establishing personal rapport with Obama, both countries zeroed in on series of issues including terrorism, defence and space mission.

Incremental progress but no breakthroughs

After meeting with Modi, US president Obama said, "We discussed the issues of trade, issues of making sure that maritime rules are observed, and we discussed how we can continue to work together on a whole host of issues from space exploration, scientific endeavor, to dealing with humanitarian crises like Ebola in West Africa".

On asking about series of thorny issues, Modi in philosophical note said ,"We already have the foundation of a strong partnership. We now have to revive the momentum and ensure that we get the best out of it for our people and for the world."

It will be too early to predict how much India will gain with this much trumpeted visit. But one conclusion can be drawn that Modi has indirectly given message to world that a leader finally has arrived in India who has capacity to take decisions in the better interest of their country.

Now, it is time to action and Modi must proved critics wrong who are swiping at Prime Minister asking, "there's lots of sizzle, but where's the steak?. The economic times has further touted by saying, If the sizzle is followed by drizzle, it will end in fizzle.

Jettisoning the sticky issues, both Countries tried to give fresh start to the Indo-US ties. Both Modi and Obama agreed to make "joint and concerted efforts" to dismantle safe havens for terror and criminal networks like LeT, JeM, D-company, al Qaeda and Haqqani network.

India is facing threat from these terrorist organizations from long time now and India wants US to provide full cooperation to tackle this menace.

There was apprehension that in quid pro quo, Obama administration will ask India to provide them shoulder in their war against ISIS.

Vikram Doraiswami, Joint Secretary (Americas) in the MEA, clarified that India will not join "any coalition" against terrorism but the two sides have agreed on the need to deal with "travellers of terrorism" -- radicalised people who travel for participating in terror activities in West Asia. Then series of other deals including smart cities project where US pledged to help in developing three Indian cities Allahabad, Ajmer and Vishakhapatnam.

Scrutinizing whole range of issues, it can be concluded that though both Obama and Narendra Modi sought to repair strained relationship by some goodies, but little in the way of concrete deals. No breakthroughs were achieved on nuclear liability clause, patents regime, or WTO approach and Visa matter. Both India and US maintained their old position on almost every issues mentioned here.

Modi's meeting with business heads is like shot in arm

Though, US administration has not promised to spend big fat of money in India ostensibly like China and Japan, but the way Modi interacted with chief executive officers of American companies and Indian Diasporas, it looks not an impossible task.

Through his extempore speeches, Modi has firmly signalled his focus on getting investments into India and his willingness to remove any roadblocks that US firms might face. Only the hitch is that after coming back to India, he will have to adopt this cracking attitude and definitely have to change this red tapism things.

Time to roll out action in India

US companies have recently whimpered about series of issues I.e red tape, retroactive rules and taxes, corruption and unpredictable court judgments.

Us business house is right at their position because recently, India slipped in the global competitiveness rankings of the World Economic Forum by 11 places to just 71st in the world. Even world bank tagged India worst performers in ease of starting a business. The latest World Bank report shows India slipped from 131st position to 134th.

Modi will have to do a lot to turned this red tapism into red carpet in India. But the Modi who has proved his mettle earlier, will definitely pull it through.