India and the U.S. are slated to hold trade talks in May to identify opportunities in sectors such as infrastructure, digital technologies and smart cities even as commercial ties have soured by the recent visa and intellectual property (IP) issues.
Government and industry representatives from both the nations will hold talks during the ‘Annual West Coast Summit’ in Menlo Park, California on May 8. The discussions apart from food processing and supply chain logistics will focus on financial services, clean energy, healthcare, electronics and manufacturing from a technology partnership perspective.
About 400 companies from India will take part in ‘Glorious India’ backed by the Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry (leading the ‘Make in India programme) and Tourism Ministry (spearheading the ‘Incredible India’ initiative). India-US trade in goods and services had risen to around $115 billion in 2016 from $109 billion in 2015, according to U.S. government data, and the aim is to raise this to $500 billion soon.
By Baishakhi Dutta
