Indo-US ties cemented by people-to-people relations and agency roles

New Delhi [India], June 20 : A major cementing factor of Indo-US ties is the people-to-people relations, which has played a defining feature of relations between the two countries.

The US is a preferred destination for education among Indian students who want to pursue higher education overseas. The reason is simply the excellence and quality of American universities. According to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's annual report, India surpassed China in sending more students to the US in 2022 with 64,300 students while China's number declined to 24776. The report highlighted that the number of students from China and India made Asia the most popular continent of origin with regard to the inflow of students.

Another cementing factor in relationships is the business leadership and agency role played by Indians. As Indian technical and professional educational institutions like IITs and IIMs have maintained global quality standards, many of the alumni of these institutions go to the US for advanced studies as well as career opportunities which could harness their talents.

Today a fair chunk of CEOs of American tech and pharma companies are Indians. These include prominent names like Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft; Sunder Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet; Vasant Narasimhan, CEO, of Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO, of Micron Technology; Anirudh Devgan, President and CEO, Cadence; and Nikesh Arora, CEO, Palo Alto Networks. Many of them have taken advanced educational degrees from US colleges and universities. In fact, Indian Americans are the highest-earning ethnic group in the US.

There are many prominent NASA scientists who are Indians including Ashwin Vasavada, Kamlesh Lulia, Sunita L Williams, Anita Sengupta and Meyya Meyyappan. The name which is in the limelight now is Amit Kshatriya, an Indian American Software and Robotics Engineer who was appointed as the first head of NASA's newly established Moon to Mars Programme.

US President Joe Biden appointed Indian-American Bharat Ratnamurti as an adviser for strategic economic communications who also served as the deputy director of the National Economic Council. Indian American citizens in the United States, with a population of more than 4.5 million, make up approximately 1.35 per cent of the US population and constitute the largest group of South Asian Americans and the second largest group of Asian Americans. The beginning of the 21st century marked a significant wave of migration trend from India to the US. The earlier Indian American population was dominated by immigrants from Gujarat and Punjab. The emergence of the information technology industry in Indian cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad led to a large number of migrants to the US primarily from the Indian States of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in South India. Indians comprise over 80 per cent of H-1B Visas in the US.

The Indian Americans play a very important role in American polity and economy. Kamla Harris, a half-Indian American made history as the first female Vice President of the US. She was elected Vice-President as the running mate of President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. In addition to this milestone in Indian-American history, another 130 Indian-Americans were nominated to key positions in the US administration. Some of them are Dr Abhish Jha, President Joe Biden's main adviser on Covid-19; Vinay Reddy, Biden's speech writer; Chirag Bians, the President's special assistant on criminal justice; Sonia Aggarwal, the President's adviser on climate policy; Kiran Ahuja, head of President's office for Personnel Management; Neera Tandon, President's advisor; and Rahul Gupta, President's medical officer. Young Indian American Vedant Patel is the spokesperson at the Department of State and Garima Verma is the Digital Director in the office of the first lady.

Among the persons having Indian descent two, viz; Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal served as governors of South Carolina from 2011-17 and Loisiana from 2008-16 respectively. Bobby Jindal also served as a member of the US House of Representatives, apart from serving as principal adviser to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services during President George W Bush's tenure.

Swami Vivekananda's famous speech in Chicago on September 11, 1883, was the beginning moment of Americans' falling in with Indian Yoga, a spiritual, mental and physical discipline for well-being. Later some modern Yoga experts including Indra Devi, BKS Iyengar and Bikram Chaudhary, popularised Yoga in America. The Americans love Yoga and even today Indian Gurus like Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru and Ramadev are very popular there.

The India-US people-to-people relationship has also increased through the entertainment industry. Amazon and Netflix like entertainment platforms are sought after in India for both English and Hindi language entertainment products. Some of the Indian films also made it big in the US and became international hits like RRR and songs like Natu Natu that won Oscars in the popular music category. The Indian actor Irfan Khan was a very well-known Indian actor in Hollywood with his famous films like The Namesake, Slumdog Millionaire and The Darjeeling Limited. Anupam Kher, an actor known for his subtle and tempered performances also acted in many Hollywood films including The Big Sick, Silver Linings Playbook, and A Family Man. Priyanka Chopra, an Indian actress is also a Hollywood heartthrob.

It must be noted that the United States of America remains to be the largest source of foreign tourists in India with about 5 lakh tourists every year since 2021. India's dictum of "Atithi Devo Bhava' meaning 'The Guest is God' and its huge potential in heritage and eco-tourism remain fascinating for American tourists.

The people-to-people relationship is an important pillar of Indo-US relations. This is expected to rise to new heights in the coming times as India is giving a great boost to its tourism sector by improving tourism infrastructure and tourist security as the Indian government is treating it as a sunrise industry. Besides, these ties would also increase with increased collaboration and exchange programmes in advanced education.