American problems are opportunities for India

By Raaghav G R

Posted on February 2, 2017

Donald Trump is doing, what he thinks, will fulfill his election campaign vow of ‘Making America Great Again’. On January 28^th, 2017, he banned people from seven Muslim majority countries from entering into America. Again on 30^th January, 2017, he fired the US’s Acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, for not supporting his immigration ban on Muslims. These actions by Donald Trump have drawn flak from the people of the US and from the top technical companies in the US like Google, Microsoft, Apple etcetera. Both the majority of the people in the US and the top technical companies in the US, agree that the US was built by immigrants and is a nation of immigrants. They agreed that this immigration ban on Muslims from those seven countries, would lead to loss of quality workforce, thereby crippling the US’s economy. Read more on Donald Trump

Just a decade ago, our netas were talking about ‘Brain Drain’ where people who studied in India went to work in the US, thereby developing the US’s economy and not India’s. India’s brains were being drained to the US. But if Trump continues to enforce immigration bans on more countries, including India, the brains of India who went to work and settle in the US, might return to India or owing to the situation, might not be able to get back to the US and might be forced to work and settle here in India! That would be a huge resource gain for India.

So far Trump has praised India ever since taking office on 21/01/2017 as areas of mutual interest become evident. He praised PM Modi for his decisive leadership and for ‘reviving bureaucratic deadwood’. He said he would be a big friend of India. He promised to “stand shoulder to shoulder with India in sharing intelligence and keeping our people safe mutually”. Lieutenant General (rtd), Michael T Flynn, wrote in his book The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War against Radical Islam and Its Allies that “Countries like Pakistan need to be told that we will not tolerate the existence of training camps and safe havens for Taliban, Haqqani, and al-Qaeda forces on their territory, nor will we permit their banks and other financial institutions to move illicit funds for the terror network”. Hence, Donald Trump has appointed Michael Flynn as the National Security Advisor raising hopes that US would act tough on Pakistan and stop aid to Pakistan if it did not crack down on terror networks.

Having withdrawn from the Trans – pacific pact, the US now increasingly relies on India to counter China’s growing military and diplomatic clout. It also is looking to strengthen the trilateral relationship between India, Russia and itself (USA) so that a bankrupt Russia would not approach a greedy China for funds. China would only be too happy to help Russia and expand its influence into Eurasia. The recently imposed tariff on Chinese goods imports may hurt the trade between China and USA. As a result, USA may look to strengthen its trade ties with India. PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ scheme and Donald Trump’s ‘Buy American’ scheme can be complimentary to each other i.e., American companies can manufacture in India, as labor here is cheap and sell it there in the US, at lower prices so that both the schemes are implemented. Experts expect the trade volume between India and the US to increase from the current level of US $100 billion to US $300 billion by the end of Trump’s term.

Thus, since the US – China trade ties are hurt, the future looks bright for India – US trade. The purpose of countering China’s growing military, economic and diplomatic clout will give a boost to Indo – US co – operation in the field of defense and economy. Hopefully, the US’s National Security Advisor, Michael T Flynn, will implement what he said in his book, thereby ending the long – standing terrorism problem caused by Pakistan to India and the rest of the world.PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ scheme and Donald Trump’s ‘Buy American’ scheme will complement each other thereby giving a boost to industrial investments, trade and employment opportunities in both the countries. Due to the visa constraints there in the US, some human resources who had settled in the US may return to work and settle in India, giving a boost to India’s human resource pool. To conclude, we can say that though Donald Trump’s actions have caused some serious concerns in the US, they have also created some good opportunities in India. Hence, America’s worry is India’s opportunity! Read more on Startup News

American problems are opportunities for India