What Obama means to India

Yesterday world witnessed a historic day. First African-American sworn in as President of USA. Though Independent India has seen many US presidents (almost 11), this US president raised a lot of expectations in India. The common question which raises in all of us by seeing such an hype is.. “What Obama means to India?”

Creative common license, photo is by jmtimages

On the positive note, Obama sees Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration. He hangs the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in his senate office & had once said..

“In my life, I have always looked to Mahatma Gandhi as an inspiration, because he embodies the kind of transformational change that can be made when ordinary people come together to do extraordinary things.”

He had promised to make strong strategic partnership with India a “top priority” of his presidency and described New Delhi as “a natural strategic partner” for Washington in the 21st century. Also Obama has accused Pakistan of misusing funds for the war against terror and allegedly using it to fund militancy against India.

In the inaugural speech he recognized the Hindu population in America by calling US as a nation of  “Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus”. (Indian community is the second largest community in the USA)

But on the other hand…

• Obama may give a major hit to IT sector in India as he plans to end tax breaks for companies that ship US jobs overseas. This will affect the economy of developing nations drastically until we find some other clients.

• Obama has questioned the need for more H1B work visas, and during last year he had even voted to reduce the number of visas issued to foreign workers. He also wants restrictions on Green Card Issuance. This may heavily effect the immigration into US.

Let’s see what happens…

Obama’s full speech

Part 1

Part 2

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~ by gtsenthilnath on January 21, 2009.