Booming India finds that America wants to be its new best friend

[T_i_B]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1718111,00.html

Last week, George W Bush was giving some thought to the fondness of young Indians for pizzas. As he prepares for a landmark visit to India - a trip analysts promise will bring 'India firmly and irrevocably on to the world stage as a major player' - it is these consumers he wants. In a speech ahead of his visit, he told US listeners: 'India's middle class is now estimated at 300 million people. Think about that. That's greater than the entire population of the United States. India's middle class is buying air-conditioners, kitchen appliances and washing machines, and a lot of them from American companies such as GE and Whirlpool.'

The Bush administration is acutely aware of India changing. With a growth rate now at 8 per cent, its economy has transformed itself in 15 years from that of a Third World nation to a powerful emerging force aspiring to rival China.

On Wednesday, the President will fly into New Delhi along with a large contingent of business leaders to secure a new relationship with India. The US wants to tap into its vast market: last year US exports grew by more than 30 per cent.

With foreign policy initiatives failing elsewhere, Bush's advisers are reaching out in new directions. As Japan and Europe grow weaker and China stronger, the administration has seen India as a strategic priority. The world's largest democracy is, as Bush's aides chant endlessly, 'a country sharing our democratic values and commitment to a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society'.

[LynnTheDem]

1. Careful, India! US makes a habit of turning on its friends.

And killing people. A lot of people. Especially those who were friends.

[ktlyon]

2. too bad the leadership of our country isn't concerned with

<<democratic values and commitment to a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society'.>>

[lastknowngood]

3. He is such an ass. India's middle class is buying air-conditioners

kitchen appliances and washing machines, and a lot of them from American companies such as GE and Whirlpool.' Yea fool but they are made in CHINA!

[T_i_B]

4. Oh India can do manufacturing too

In fact they are pretty good at manufacturing themselves. I wouldn't be quite so quick to make assumptions about what the Indian's can and can't manufacture.

[madrchsod]

5. how did he ever get out of high school?

multi-ethnic? caste system , forced marriages and honor killings.
multi-religious society where every so often one or the other starts a blood war and also kill the elected leaders of their country?
sounds like a first world country world to me!

[liberalpragmatist]

6. Yeah, and the US is so "civilized"

India has plenty of problems but is hardly the hellhole you make it out to be. I'm not going to minimize religious violence, but just as I wouldn't make gross generalizations about US race relations, you shouldn't make broad generalizations about religious and caste conflicts in India. Despite a history of race riots, would you say that America is plunged in a "race war"? Violence does break out in some regions between Hindus and Muslims, but luckily, even in the latest case, the riots didn't spread beyond the state of Gujurat and the perpetrators are being brought to justice.

I'd much rather be living in India than in China or most other third-world countries, where the poor have no recourse or legal status, and where there isn't an independent press to raise awareness.