Obama's IT czar coming to India

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Sep 14 (PTI) With less than two months for
his planned visit to India, US President Barack Obama will
soon send his top IT czar Aneesh Chopra to the country with a
high-powered technology delegation.
The delegation to be co-led by Indian American Chopra,
who is Chief Technology Officer for the US President, and
Secretary of State's Senior Advisor for Innovation Alec Ross,
would travel to New Delhi and Rajasthan.
Obama is scheduled to visit India in November.
This Delegation is an important first step of the
US-India Innovation Exchange, announced by Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Indian External Affairs Minister S
M Krishna during the June 4 US-India Strategic Dialogue.
As a product of the US-India Strategic Dialogue, this
Innovation Exchange reinforces Obama's and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's commitment to strengthening Indo-US robust
relationship through partnerships in the many areas in which
the two countries have common interests, an official US
release said.
Technology is one area where the US and India share
not only common interests but also common innovation-based
cultures devoted to cutting-edge research and visionary
entrepreneurship, it said.
Both the US and India are recognised global leaders
in a variety of technology sectors, from software and
computing, to telecommunications and energy, it said.
The Technology Delegation is designed to leverage US
and Indian expertise to help produce real-world technology
solutions in three areas of energy, education, and
e-Governance.
Through meetings with Indian business and government
leaders, and visits to innovative Indian organisations, we aim
to spur productive discussion and thought around identifying
new projects, the State Department said.
"This Delegation aims to deliver projects ready for
investment and ultimate market entry. All projects will be
characterized by strong US-India collaboration and a clear
path to execution," the statement said.
"Project ideas can take many forms, including
public-private partnerships, private-private joint ventures;
and working groups dedicated to finding new ways to tackle big
problems," it said.
"Given that the US and India share strong cultures
of creative idea generation and innovative risk-taking, we are
optimistic about the potential of new projects arising from
the Delegation," the State Department said. PTI LKJ
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