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Pressler extols Indian 'knowledge power'

The United States will be cultivating India as a geopolitical counter to China in Asia not with military or trade pacts but with "knowledge" power, according to former senator Larry Pressler.

"With the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the knowledge era, the US needs to make use of India's speciality to counterbalance its geopolitcal equation with China," said Pressler, currently on the board of directors of trade.com

Pressler, who was chairman of the Arms Control and Nuclear Disarmament Subcommittee in the 1970s and author of the Pressler Amendment (introduced in 1990), said, "Though China has a head start over India, both economically and militarily, by starting reforms 13 years before India, it looks good as a partner in trade, while India looks a much better partner in the knowledge business for the US."

"Knowledge will be more important than manufacturing in the 21st century" and the US should take certain actions to promote strategic partnership with India in this regard, he said.

Though Pakistan is likely to oppose US backing for India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, the US need not give importance to its opposition, Pressler said.

Clarifying the US stand on the subcontinent before the Cold War ended, Pressler said Washington tended to equate India and Pakistan in Asian policy-making.

"But India is a democracy and Pakistan is not, and India is a far bigger economic, political and military force than Pakistan," he said.

Pressler, who was in India also to lobby for Republican presidential candidate George W Bush, said the Indian American community has become a force to reckon with in the knowledge economy. Indian Americans account for a fifth of new start-ups in Silicon Valley in California, he pointed out.

The knowledge partnership is now beginning to spread to other areas like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, entertainment, agricultural research and many other hi-tech areas and the US could not afford to ignore this, Pressler said.

One of the pitches made in the Bush campaign is for an increase in the number of H1B visas for Indians. "We invite Indians to America for knowledge power," Pressler said.

Pressler said education is also emerging as a major area of knowledge co-operation. "The Cold War created a chasm between India and the US whereas the Knowledge Era is now building a bridge between the two," he said. "This has created the potential for a major new partnership in the 21st century."

PTI

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