India-US trade will be $1 trillion by 2030: Book

"The Indo-US Partnership: $1 trillion by 2030", a book authored by India-born American university professor Nish Acharya, was released here on Wednesday.

Acharya, who was earlier a director of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Barack Obama administration, is a Visiting Fellow with Gateway House, a Mumbai-based think-tank that seeks to engage Indian corporations and individuals in debate on India's foreign policy and its role in global affairs.

"The book is released weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Silicon Valley in September where he would address technology entrepreneurs and the Indian diaspora," Gateway House, which published the book, said in a statement.

Modi is scheduled to visit the US to address the UN General Assembly in New York in September, as he did in his first year in office in 2014.

Phillip A. Min, U.S. Consul General, Chennai, Manipal education group chairman and former Infosys director T.V. Mohandas Pai and Goldman Sachs India managing director Bunty Bohra spoke on the projected upswing in the India-US trade over the next 15 years.

"Technology has presented a springboard for a strong India-US partnership. Indian American co-founders form 33 percent of Silicon Valley start-ups and account for 7 percent of American physicians," the statement said.

As a community, American physicians have contributed to the entrepreneurial, small business and healthcare sectors in the US over the decades.

"To tackle India's development challenges, it is essential to deploy talented individuals and technical experts in areas like infrastructure, healthcare, energy and agriculture," the statement quoted Acharya as saying.

As leading and innovating technologies can generate millions of jobs and opportunities, Acharya said India had to build a 'Silicon Swadesh', a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem, modelled on Silicon Valley, to support home-grown innovation and entrepreneurship across the country.

"India needs to build a ramp for poverty alleviation and enable the 42 percent of its people living under the World Bank poverty line of $1.25 a day to access the services of non-government organisations, social entrepreneurs and micro-finance organisations," Acharya said.

Though these organisations are able to identify problems and scale solutions, they are unable to build sustainable systems and expertise to achieve a lasting impact."

India needs to take advantage of next generation technologies such as synthetic biology, 3D printing, mobile, social and big data, to create an industrial base from which products and services can be sold and jobs created," he said.

The event was held in collaboration with United Way of Bengaluru, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, and Citizens & Equal Innovation Institute.