U.S. and India Partnership: How Both Countries Are Supporting the Global Economy

The U.S. and India have been working closely together to support the global economy during the past few years. Especially throughout the COVID-19 era, there have been swift responses from both countries to help battle the global pandemic — and the progress they’ve made both individually and together has positively impacted countries across the globe.

At the 2021 USIBC India Ideas Summit, speakers representing both countries discussed the importance of both the U.S. and India strategizing to understand what they can achieve together for the good of the global economy. Initiatives include building a more sustainable future, fighting the second wave of COVID-19, and managing additional health emergencies going forward.

The U.S. and India Are Looking to Continue Growing Their Relationship Post-Pandemic

Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary of India, outlined India and the U.S.’s shared goal of continuing to work closely together as the entire world recovers from the pandemic.

“In the post-pandemic era, India and the United States look forward to cooperating to maintain … healthy rates of growth, work together to announce our trade and investment cooperation, and also contribute to global economic recovery,” he said.

They plan to do this “through supply chain resilience and diversity, tapping emerging technologies, working towards global health security, and facilitating clean and green technologies and climate finance by developing in vulnerable economies,” Shringla explained.

“There is every reason to believe this relationship is going to attain greater heights in the years to come,” he added. “Today, we are in a strong position, but poised to move forward exponentially on many of the areas that we have identified together as being important for us bilaterally, but also regionally and globally.”

India Has a Unique Opportunity in the Technology Space

Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, highlighted the major opportunities India is looking to leverage in the near future.

“The post-COVID world represents a series of very significant deep opportunities for countries like India … where trust and dependability are playing a bigger role,” he said. “I see these … as big opportunities for India and hence the call for resetting [and reimagining] our ambitions.”

Chandrasekhar said India already has the strategies and policies in place to respond to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the country in the electronics and technology space.

“We believe that the world is now looking for a tectonic change in the way supply chains have developed over the last many years and that India has a significant opportunity … with a focus on Made in India to be a global provider of technology products and services to consumers and customers around the world.”

How Cutting-Edge Technologies Will Help Manage Future Health Emergencies

Phil Febbo, MD, chief medical officer of Illumina, Inc., stated that his company is continuing to collaborate with government scientists and researchers from around the world to combat the pandemic by “providing technology to support and track transmission, and develop therapies and vaccines to ensure long-term global safety and security.”

These efforts have been made possible by the India-U.S. partnership and, in particular, India’s leadership.

“As we know, India has emerged as a critical partner in the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines to developed nations,” he said. “And under the Quad Vaccine Partnership, at least 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses manufactured in India will be delivered by the end of 2022.”

This progress would not have been possible without the partnership between the U.S. and India — the two largest democracies in the world.

“Both in genomic sequencing using our technologies and manufacturing, the vaccines, India shows incredible leadership,” Febbo said. “This will help us get through the pandemic.”