1 For decades during the Cold War, Indo-U.S. relations were distant, New Delhi courted Moscow, and socialists found it fashionable to disdain capitalist America.
2 So it was interesting to watch India's finance minister take notes as executives from major U.S. companies told him how to speed up his economic reforms.
3 'We're on your side. We'll do what we can as soon as possible,' Manmohan Singh said, as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown sat alongside the businessmen and smiled.
4 As many predicted after the fall of the Soviet Union, India is courting the West for all the investment and technical assistance that Moscow no longer provides -- and shedding socialism as it improves ties with capitalistic powerhouses.
5 But the United States also is working hard to improve its relations and trade with India by playing down disagreements over issues such as nuclear proliferation and human rights.
6 In addition, top companies and financial institutions in the United States, Japan and Europe are beginning to conclude that India could one day become a lucrative market.
7 This week, the Russell 20-20 Association, a group of major U.S. institutional investors with assets of dlrs 1 trillion, began touring India.
8 'The new India-U.S. relationship really marks the end of the Cold War,' said Surendra Rao, director of the National Council for Applied Economic Research, a non-profit research group.
9 'In the past, India wasn't even a blip on the U.S. screen. Today it is much larger because it has opened its economy and the rest of the world is seeing its potential,' he said.
10 Nearly 50 years after it won independence from colonial Britain, India still can't provide reliable power stations, telephones or highways to most of its 900 million people. Huge segments of its population go hungry every day.
11 So Singh worked hard during Brown's visit last month to encourage more U.S.-based multinationals to link up with local companies to repair India's antiquated infrastructure.
12 Despite the reforms, foreign companies still face many obstacles in India's bloated bureaucracy, especially complex license restrictions established during decades of socialism.
13 For example, it took A.E.S. Transpower, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based A.E.S. Corp., two years to negotiate one of several key contracts it will need to build a power plant in Orissa, one of India's poorest states.
14 At one point, A.E.S. was required to renegotiate key elements of the contract when Indian newspapers claimed that A.E.S. would make too much money from the deal, Anson said.
15 During Brown's visit, the secretary made it clear that Washington has made trade with Asia's growing markets a top priority, and that it wants to maintain its position as India's No. 1 trade partner.

So it was interesting to watch India ' s finance minister take notes as executives from major U . S . companies told him how to speed up his economic reforms .
India ' s finance minister take notes
What was the reason for India's change of heart about American capitalism?