U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership

On June 27, Global Economy and Development at Brookings, together with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), hosted a high-level conference on the “U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership.” The event served as a precursor to the second installment of the official U.S.-India bilateral partnership meetings, held on June 28 in Washington, D.C.

The program commenced with special remarks by Meera Shankar, Indian ambassador to the United States, and by Lael Brainard, under secretary of the treasury for international affairs, and culminated with a moderated discussion between U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on India-U.S. economic and financial relations.

Attendees included leaders from several prominent Indian and U.S. companies; high level officials from the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Indian Ministry of Finance and the U.S. Department Treasury; experts in international business and economics; and thought leaders and academics from universities and research institutions.

The participants discussed both short- and long-term challenges to enhancing coordination between the two countries as well as the vast opportunities that a strengthened partnership would bring. Speakers remarked on the complementarities of both countries’ initiatives, such as the U.S. hope that India will move forward with financial reforms to open its markets up further to U.S. companies and investment. This would help increase India’s access to capital—a key factor for meeting the country’s substantial infrastructure needs.

The conference was organized around four panels:

1) Realizing India’s Full Economic Potential
Key topics included: Inflation, fiscal burden, infrastructure deficit, underdeveloped manufacturing sector, labor force skills and capacity, trade and foreign direct investment.

2) Striking the Balance between Inflation and Growth: India’s Policy Choices and the U.S. Experience
Key topics included: Indian inflation dynamics, global food and commodity prices, monetary policy transmission, central bank communication and capital flows.

3) Increasing Access to Capital to Stimulate Sustainable Economic Growth: The Road to Deepening India’s Capital Markets
Key topics included: The role of and volatility of capital markets, and the business and regulatory environment.

4) Innovative Approaches to Financing Our Infrastructure Needs 
Key topics included: Infrastructure debt fund, municipal debt markets, public private partnerships and credit enhancement.

View the agenda » (pdf)

View the speaker bios » (pdf)