I am awed with the speech that Barack Obama gave on his inaugural address, and it did not appear like he was reading it, nor did it look like he had some help from a prompter. There is a lot on the web on his speech and subsequent analysis of why, how and what he said in those 25 minutes. He is known for his oratory skills, but the way he went on from issues to another and the passion he generated with those words in light of the troubled times we are in, I guess, connected much with listeners across the globe.

I have always been fascinated by the US – Indo relations. It’s been blow hot… blow cold… Most Indians, and typically a very large part of the entire middle class here, want to visit US; have been to US (some a few many times); know a great deal about the US; have someone they know or are related to closely in the US, yet I am not too sure if we have been able to impress much on our interest in US and get the policy makers there to know of the impression. We also had some of our national dailies screaming Obama quote US Citizens as Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and non believers. For some reasons I believe that Obama unlike most other Presidents seems to acknowledge the role of the sizable Indian native population in US, and therefore I guess he may want to tread a better approach to the relations with India.

On his foreign policy, http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/foreign_policy/, one gets to see the changed US policies on troubled countries mentioned in prominence. The web page may not want to include all other countries and therefore it could be why India; however time and again the tilt towards these countries, and no direct reference to us makes us the common citizens wonder, if they yet presume India not to be an ally? The United States has never,  and as, in the recent past ever shown a strong support to Indian concerns. Nor do we do so well from our end with our communist parties crying wolf whenever there is a trade agreement signed or an FDI is inked with a American multinational, which probably attracts negative media attention there in US. For that matter communist parties are just the same with any other western countries and Indian enterprises as well.

In course of our regular business we have interacted with a lot of professionals from US as clients and have imbibed processes which have helped us manage business from a generic manner locally to transacting and presenting business in structured and professional way to global clients. It is to the credit of such transactions we have learned through them that have enabled us to gain grounds with professionals from different other parts of the world. Our experience in the last decade, which I am sure is not surprising and not new to many others, as well, is that our  business prospects are proportionate to the strength of US economy and other markets also respond better then. The way we have been conducting our business and responding to global clientele has undergone a sea change for better and local clients have also experienced such welcome change. It is quite in the interest of the enterprising community that the US economy does well and our relations with US on both the fronts; economic and external affairs, improve.

Hopefully with http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/change_has_come_to_whitehouse-gov/ we will see better  times to come soon. Will there be a learning for our policy makers in managing such a change ?