Swadesh Chatterjee, Vishakha Desai and Shekar Narasimhan.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Three Indian Americans – Swadesh Chatterjee, Vishakha Desai and Shekar Narasimhan – are amongst the advisory council of ‘India: 2020’ a newly launched program by the Washington, DC-based think tank Center for American Progress’ (CAP) National Security and International Policy team.
‘India: 2020’ will examine short- and long-term policy priorities for every aspect of the U.S.-India strategic partnership with a focus on concrete recommendations that can be achieved by 2020, said a press release issued by CAP. The program was launched on Monday with a keynote speech by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Chatterjee was the chairman and co-founder of the US-India Friendship Council, which played a key role in the passage of the nuke deal. The first Indian American to win the Padma Bhushan recipient, he is also a member of prime minister Manmohan Singh’s Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians.
Desai is President Emeritus of the Asia Society in New York, Special Advisor for Global Affairs to the President and also a Professor at Columbia University.
Narasimhan is Commissioner, White House Initiative of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The other members of the advisory council comprise of three former American ambassadors to India: Nancy Powell, Tim Roemer and Frank Wisner, and Dr. Ashton Carter, the former US Deputy Secretary of Defense.
In his speech, Kerry spoke of the need for greater cooperation between the United States and India ahead of the fifth U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue in Delhi this week.
“CAP has continued to prove that good ideas are still the most important currency in our political debate,” Secretary Kerry said in his address. “That is a principle that has also guided CAP’s work on foreign policy, especially in convening track II – the first intensive climate change dialogue between the United States and India. India: 2020 builds on that success by showing how the United States and India together can tackle global challenges, from security in the Asia-Pacific, to providing clean energy, to delivering more inclusive growth.”
CAP President Neera Tanden in her remarks said the new initiative “will help chart a new and ambitious course for the U.S.-India partnership.”
According to the release, by using 2020 as a benchmark, CAP will anticipate and provide regional analysis and forward-looking policy recommendations in an effort to deepen the partnership with India through trade and investment, defense cooperation, a strategic dialogue for bilateral cooperation, and citizen exchange.
Over the past two years, CAP has organized a series of events on India, with accompanying publications, with participants including Vice President Joe Biden, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and a side-by-side presentation from U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell and the Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Nirupama Rao.