10/28/2014

India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

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Tanvi Madan | September 26, 2014 3:30pm

India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the United States, it's worth putting the India-U.S.
relationship in perspective and considering how far it has come in recent years. Fifteen years
ago, there were U.S. sanctions on India. More recently, the Obama administration has said the
U.S. relationship with India "will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century." These 14
charts and graphics show that the relationship has changed in other ways as well, including the
areas of high-level India-U.S. engagement, economic and defense ties, people-to-people
connections amongst Indians and Americans and future opportunities to increase bilateral
cooperation.

1. High-level India-U.S. engagement has been more frequent in the last decade and a
half than in the years before that.

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2. In recent years, the India-U.S. relationship has enjoyed bipartisan support in the
United States, with both Republican and Democratic administrations and legislators
indicating support for it.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

3. In India too, Bharatiya Janata Party-led and Congress party-led governments have
worked to strengthen the relationship.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

4. The bilateral economic relationship has grown in the last decade, but there is still a
lot of room for it to develop...

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

5. And defense ties between India and the United States have increased as well.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

6. The defense trade relationship has been a key element of this cooperation, with
hopes for much more on this front.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

7. Beyond economic and defense ties, there's been more people-to-people

engagement than ever before, with increased travel from the United States to India...

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

8. ...and India to the United States.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

9. The number of Indian students traveling to the United States for higher education
has also grown, tripling in the span of a decade.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

10. As Neil Ruiz points out in his recent report, significantly, these students are
enrolled in graduate degree programs and a majority are in the science, technology,
engineering and math fields.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

11. While India has economic and defense ties with other major powers as well, one of
the elements that makes its relationship with the United States different is the
significant Indian diaspora in the United States that has grown over the last two
decades. This diaspora not only provides a cultural link to the United States, but is
also a source of revenue for India.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

12. Indian Americans are running everything from government agencies to states to
major companies to research facilities; they're headlining news shows and primetime
sit-coms. Still only about 1 percent of the total U.S. population, "Asian Indians"as
the Census labels themon average are highly educated and have a household
income almost double that the national average.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

13. There also seems to be more popular support than before in India and the United
States for strengthening the relationship.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

14. And there are various areas where the two countries can increase their
cooperation, but to move from opportunities to outcomes, India and the United States
will also have to deal with certain obstacles along the way...something both Prime
Minister Modi and President Obama will be well aware of.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

In advance of the Prime Minister Modi's and President Barack Obama's meeting in Washington,
the Brookings India Initiative, which consists of the Brookings India Center in New Delhi and the
India Project at Brookings, released a briefing book of 28 policy memos by over two dozen
Brookings scholars highlighting areas of promise in the partnership between India and the United
States and suggesting ways to translate those opportunities into outcomes.

Tanvi Madan
Fellow, Foreign Policy
Director, The India Project
@tanvi_madan
Tanvi Madan is a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, and director of The India
Project. Madans work explores Indian foreign policy, focusing in particular on India's relations with China and the
United States.

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India-U.S. Relations in 14 Charts and Graphics | Brookings Institution

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3 Comments

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SAT GOEL

a month ago

A lot of opportunities for mutual benefit. The US can provide capital and technology and
India can provide skilled labour and customers.
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amyinnh > SAT GOEL

a month ago

Corporations buy low, sell high. They're not interested in mutual benefit.

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Chris Coglianese

a month ago

Tanvi,
India did not partcipate in RED FLAG in 2014. Unfortunately, USAF and IAF have not
exercised together since 2009. Budget challenges on both sides have been the
culprit...not lack of desire.
India was supposed to partcipate in RED FLAG in 2013 (MINDEF Antony reversed his
decision in March 2013), but budget sequestration forced us to have to cancel the
exercise (regrettably only about 10 days after India announced the decision reversal).
Having said that...that will change very soon. Most of the defense trade in recent years
is airpower systems, especially C17s and C130Js.
Chris
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