that the trip is oriented to addressing the audience back home, where unemployment features as a major issue.

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Image: Students gather next to paintings of US President Barack Obama.Photographs: Enny Nuraheni/Reuters.

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This is entirely understandable, indeed to be expected, because Mr Obama will be coming to India just after mid-term Congressional elections have led to a rout for his party, and he will want to be seen as delivering on job creation.

As is often the case, diplomacy is simply domestic politics by other means. Still, it is helpful to juxtapose the focus on "opening up the Indian market for American jobs" with the facts of the case.

At a White House briefing a couple of days ago, reporters were told that Americangoods exports to India have quadrupled in the last seven years, while service exports have trebled.

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Overall, American exports of goods and services have grown in these seven years from $7 billion to $27 billion. In other words, American exports to India are no longer "as flat as a chapatti" - as the then US Ambassador Robert Blackwill declared early this decade.

Further, reporters were told, "the trade relationship is broadly balanced, including goods and services." And that's not all. Indian companies are now the "second-fastest-growing investors in the United States". And they now support about 57,000 jobs in the US.

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Image: Barack Obama volunteers to paint at National Day of Service and Remembrance event in Washington.Photographs: Reuters.

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