'Evergreen revolution partnership major step in Indo-US ties'

The Evergreen Revolution partnership between India and US which was announced during President Barack Obama's India visit is a major step forward in Indo-US relations, a top official has said.

The Partnership for an Evergreen Revolution is a major new step forward in our relationship. It is intended to be cast in the same way that the previous partnership for a green revolution 30-40 years ago had impacts that reached hundreds of millions of people," Raj Shah, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development said.

Shah, the highest ranking Indian American in the Obama Administration was addressing a joint press conference with Robert Blake, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia yesterday on Obama's India trip.

Shah said tens of millions of farm households will benefits through this partnership.

"We also think we're going to showcase this new way of working where we bring so much of the innovation that exists in different parts of India to other parts of the world that could benefit from having that kind of greater Indian engagement," he said.

Shah said the development relationship between the two countries has already evolved and will continue to do so from a traditional partnership toa peer-to-peer partnership and look for opportunities where Indian innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs can create solutions that apply all around the world.

"The first thing is this shift to real technical cooperation and, instead of thinking of it as a traditional development partnership, looking at how we can work together to solve global problems," Shah said.

He said the second thing is that US working in greater partnership with the Indian government and they have been asked to focus on certain parts of the country and on certain issues like certain diseases and certain states.

Shah added that they are reshaping their program to align against that request.

Shah said President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched a joint aspiration to bring some of the unique technological and organisational solutions in India to places like Africa as part of Obama's Feed the Future food-security initiative.

"I would also just highlight that the President had the chance to visit with people who are bringing technology to open government in India and see and communicate directly with farmers in a rural village via a system called E Panchayat that allows people to demand more of their government," he said.

This, of course, is consistent with the President's theme overall on transparency and government effectiveness and accountability to people, and we look forward to continued partnerships with India in that space," Shah said.

He said the opportunity to sit and listen to Obama's speech to the Indian Parliament was really a unique moment and the speech really captured the full breadth and nature of their shared histories and aspirations.

"While that served as the venue to announce some of these development-oriented efforts, it's really the broader framework, the message that's important, that this is now a partnership with two countries standing together as peers capable of addressing the challenges that the world faces these days," Shah said.