Geithner's visit aims to strengthen India-US ties

Washington/New Delhi, Apr 6(ANI): U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner's two-day trip to India aims to strengthen the economic and financial partnership between the two countries.

Geithner arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday to inaugurate the new US-India Economic and Financial Partnership, which was announced last November by US President Barack Obama during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to Washington.

Addressing the media in Washington before he left, Geithner praised Indian policy makers for their management of the economy and also said the United States could help the country set up a corporate bond market.

The ties between both the countries have grown significantly since India began to open its economy in the early 1990s, and bilateral trade has tripled in the last 10 years, to 37.6 billion dollars.

According to statistics, American private investment in India is worth 16.1 billion dollars, about 10 times what it was in the late 1990s.

Indian Treasury officials said trade would not be high on the agenda during Geithner's visit, but he is expected to discuss infrastructure financing.

He is also expected to encourage Indian officials to raise the limits they have placed on foreign banks and insurance companies, but New Delhi seems reluctant to allow more foreign banks into he country unless the Federal Reserve allows more Indian banks to set up branches in the United States, The New York Times reports. (ANI)