'US, India must create new opportunities for co-operation'

As India and the US embark on an ambitious path of more intensive economic ties, the top Indian envoy here has cautioned America against expecting that its norms and practices would be fully adopted in India, saying the two countries must recognise their differences to create new opportunities for co-operation.
"To expect that the norms and practices of one place would be automatically adopted on other does not happen anywhere. Therefore as we build this (relationship), the challenge for us, the creativity for us would be recognising these differences and how do we create new opportunities for co-operation," India's Ambassador to the US, Arun K Singh said here.

The Ambassador was speaking at an event organised by the Peterson Institute for International Economy along with US India Business Council (USIBC) to release a report 'India's Rise: A Strategy for Trade-Led Growth'.
The report authored by C Fred Bergsten recommends several measures that India needs to take to boost up its economic growth.
Singh said he does not agree with many portions of the report.
In his remarks, Singh referred to the frequent statements made by top American leadership, including President Barack Obama, that rise of India is in the national security interest of the US.

"The US leaders have stated time and again that they fully embrace the rise of India. And the rise of India is in US' national interest. So for that rise of India, people also need to look at what can the US do to contribute to the economic rise of India," he said.

"While working on that we have to be mindful of the fact that the political economies of any two countries will be different. The political economy of the United States is very different from the political economy of Europe. The political economy of the United States is different from the political economy of India," Singh said.
The Ambassador said over the past one year a whole series of significant steps have been taken by the Indian government towards improving ease of doing business and in terms of transparency.
There has been tremendous change that is taking place in India.
"As we move ahead to seek eight to 10 per cent growth, we would like to do that to the maximum extent possible on the basis of renewable energy," he said, adding that renewable energy would be a major focus area when Prime Minister Narendra Modi vists the US next week.