 Well good morning everyone. My name is Bill Burns. I'm the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and it really is a great pleasure to welcome all of you to Carnegie today. And it is a special pleasure for me to introduce and moderate this morning's conversation with Secretary Pritzker and Minister Sitaraman. I am deeply grateful that both ministers have taken the time to be with us on the eve of the inaugural U.S. India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. The strategic rationale for deeper economic ties between the world's oldest and biggest democracies is, as all of you know very well, deeply compelling. If you need to be convinced, I recommend you read a report my colleagues Ashley Teles and Roger Mohan published last month on this very topic. There is no question that India's rise and the rise of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership are some of the most dramatic developments in the international landscape over the past two decades. But there is also no question that for that partnership to thrive and realize its full promise, the economic and commercial foundations need to be strengthened significantly. The question is how to translate strategic rationale into strategic outcomes. And this is precisely what we hope to discuss in today's conference. And in classic Carnegie fashion we've assembled leading policymakers, business people and thinkers to work through the challenge together and try and illuminate the path ahead. So to get this conversation going, I'll ask Secretary Pritzker to offer a few opening thoughts. Minister Sitaraman will follow and then I'll do my best to moderate a conversation between our two guests and with all of you. So with that introduction, please join me in welcoming a wonderful public servant, Secretary Penny Pritzker. Thank you all very much. Ambassador Burns, thank you very much for inviting us here today. I'm really honored to be here. Last summer your vision for the potential of the U.S.-India relationship led to Secretary Kerry and I visiting the new Prime Minister. And in many respects that trip laid the groundwork for this week's inaugural U.S.-India strategic and commercial dialogue. I also want to recognize Carnegie's Dr. Ashley Tellis and Dr. Milan Vishnev. I know the two of you have worked closely with our team at the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration to develop the vision for the strategic and commercial dialogue and to make these next few days a success. So thank you very much. Your prolific work in South Asia, the work that the Carnegie Endowment has done makes it a perfect venue for us to discuss the importance of the growing commercial and economic ties between the United States and India. Finally, I want to acknowledge my friend and colleague, Minister Sitaraman. The two of us share President Obama and Prime Minister Modi's vision for an expanded U.S.-India trade and investment relationship. And we're committed to working hand in hand to achieve a closer, deeper partnership between our communities, our businesses, and the economies of our two nations. More than a century ago, an ambitious Indian entrepreneur named Gemsetji Tata embarked on a long and difficult journey to the United States. He traveled here with a simple goal in mind to develop relationships that would help him realize his dream to build a steel mill in India. Over the course of that visit, Tata met with American business leaders in Ohio and Michigan to learn about our steel industry. In North Carolina and Georgia, he toured our most profitable steel and our cotton mills. And in Alabama, he saw our iron, coal, and limestone production firsthand. Tata even met with President Teddy Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., and they bonded over cricket. Tata formed partnerships that allowed him to eventually build a world-class steel mill in India. And 113 years later, the Tata Group enjoys the largest market capitalization in India, employs thousands of people both in its home country and here in the United States, and has a well-respected global brand. Tata's story embodies so much of the promise and potential of our bilateral commercial relationship. Today, we have come together to deepen our economic and commercial cooperation, not only between individual business leaders, but between our two countries, the world's oldest and largest democracies. The good news is business between the United States and India has never been better. Two-way trade nearly tripled from $37 billion in 2005 to $104 billion last year. American investments in India have grown from a total of about $7.7 billion in 2004 to $28 billion today. And India's become the fifth fastest growing source of foreign direct investment into the United States. This tremendous growth in bilateral commerce has created greater prosperity for businesses, workers, and communities in both our nations. Our exports to India support more than 180,000 American jobs. And India's exports to our country support roughly 365,000 Indian jobs. U.S. firms employ about 840,000 people in India, while Indian-owned companies employ nearly 44,000 people in our communities. These statistics are evidence of the strong economic base that exists between our two countries. And with the initial steps taken by Prime Minister Modi to strengthen India's business climate, our commercial partnership should only grow in the years to come. Since his election, the Modi government has streamlined bureaucratic decision-making processes, raised foreign direct investment limits in insurance, defense, and railroad infrastructure, established commercial courts that speed up the resolution of business disputes, and encouraged a competitive race to the top at the state level to attract business. We commend the Prime Minister and his government on this progress. However, even with these positive steps, India is only America's 11th largest trading partner, and 18th largest export market. Our commercial relationship has simply not lived up to its enormous potential. We have known this for decades, but today, given the headwinds in the global economy, neither of us can afford this underperformance any longer. We must take action to address the impediments to growth faced by our businesses and our economies, and we can only succeed by working together. In India, Prime Minister Modi has committed his government to addressing the country's vast infrastructure, power generation, healthcare, and transportation needs, with initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, and building 100 smart cities. And American businesses stand ready with technology and capital to partner with India's public and private sectors to contribute to India's growth and development. In the United States, President Obama has made improving market access, promoting exports, and attracting foreign investment central to his economic agenda and his efforts to support a rising middle class. For our workforce and our businesses to thrive in the 21st century, U.S. firms must be able to export goods and services to the 96 percent of people living outside the United States, including to the nearly 1.3 billion people living in India, the world's fastest growing major market. Beyond new markets for our exports, American communities also need new investment, which is why our administration established SelectUSA. This initiative led by the Commerce Department is our first-ever whole-of-government effort to attract and assist foreign investors. Indian companies have invested approximately $11 billion in the United States so far. And by designating India as a SelectUSA target market, we are working to increase the footprint of Indian businesses in our communities. President Obama and Prime Minister Modi understand that achieving our ambitious goals requires heightened engagement with the private sectors in both India and the United States. Later today, we will convene a reinvigorated U.S.-India CEO Forum, which we have now permanently linked to the strategic and commercial dialogue. The participating business leaders from both countries have been critical to developing a meaningful agenda that will inform our policy priorities. And during tomorrow's session, we have reserved a significant block of time for our governments to consider their recommendations. Beyond this inaugural strategic and commercial dialogue, the private sector from each country will be active participants in driving our dialogue forward and in holding the two governments accountable for progress. In fact, the CEO Forum has already established an aggressive work plan for the future because they, like our political leaders, see the potential of the commercial relationship and appreciate the importance of this moment. President Obama and Prime Minister Modi also understand that our markets are interconnected and that neither country can achieve its economic vision without the other. And that is why they agreed to elevate our commercial relationship by creating the strategic and commercial dialogue. Tomorrow, joined by senior representatives from across each of our governments, Secretary Kerry, Minister Swaraj, Minister Sitaraman, and I will convene the first ever strategic and commercial dialogue. Our initial work plan, informed by a close collaboration with Indian and American public and private sectors, focuses on our nation's joint priorities, including ease of doing business, infrastructure development, innovation and entrepreneurship, standards, and global supply chain. Prime Minister Modi has publicly committed to moving India into the top 50 of the World Bank's ease of doing business rankings. Improving contract enforcement and modernizing bankruptcy practices are central elements to achieving that ambition. Today, the World Bank ranks India 186 out of 189 countries on the ease of enforcing contracts. In fact, it can take years to resolve a contractual dispute with a vendor in India, and terms are too frequently reinterpreted after a deal has closed. These challenges make it increasingly and incredibly costly and unpredictable to do business in India, and only serve to impede the operations and investments of Indian and foreign firms alike. Let me give you one example how the S&CD will address these issues. Teams from the United States and India will work together to share best practices and speed up the enforcement process. American officials will share tools used by our judiciary to manage dockets and promote more efficient decision-making, and we will begin a series of judicial exchanges between our experts in the coming year. With respect to bankruptcy, the Indian government is committed to developing a system that distinguishes between distressed businesses that need to be reorganized and failing businesses that need to be liquidated. To advance this goal, Department of Commerce officials recently traveled to India to meet that with the agency charged with drafting the country's new bankruptcy law, and to discuss the immense commercial challenges posed by an outdated bankruptcy regime. Experts from both countries committed to continuing these discussions as India develops and implements new standards. Whether on contracts, bankruptcy, or a whole host of issues we will address through the strategic and commercial dialogue, our primary objectives are clear, to make it easier for foreign and domestic firms to do business in India and the United States, to deepen our ties of trade and commerce, and to strengthen our bilateral commercial bonds in ways that benefit workers and businesses in both our countries. By working towards these goals tomorrow, by working in close partnership in the months and years to come, we have an extraordinary opportunity. We have an opportunity to help Prime Minister Modi achieve his vision of lifting hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty and into the middle class. We have an opportunity to help President Obama advance his vision of greater economic security for all Americans and enhanced U.S. economic leadership around the world. Together, we have an opportunity to realize the promise and potential of the U.S.-India economic relationship. I hope all of you, Indians and Americans in government and in business, will join us in seizing this moment to keep our nations open for more business together. Thank you. Good morning, Secretary Pritzker, Ambassador Burns, distinguished audience. It gives me immense pleasure to be here and I feel greatly honored that I have this opportunity to speak about what's happening in India and how the vision of both dynamic leaders from India and the United States, Prime Minister Modi and President Obama, is really picking up a certain momentum in building and reinforcing greater strength to this India-United States relationship. Secretary Pritzker made a very elaborate and a comprehensive, and I suppose she's covered most of the areas in which this strategic commercial dialogue is actually working. And I commend Secretary Pritzker for her dynamic role in this commercial dialogue. In that sense, last September when she had visited along with the Secretary Kerry, she has really put in a lot of effort to keep the momentum up. And today, when we are here to talk the greater details for the first time when we are meeting, most details have already been worked out. So actually, between September and today, there's been a lot of action and that's thanks to the energy which Secretary Pritzker has been putting in. India today stands out in the global economy on various counts. We were just talking before coming in here, the global demand, global economy and the global prospects of looking at what could happen in the next few months require a lot more light and positive energy. The depression and demand, global demand, is showing on all our economies, notwithstanding. I still say India stands out to borrow a phrase from my finance minister as a shining star, because if you look at some of the parameters, we are still going to have between 7 to 7.5 percent growth. And that for an economy which still has a lot of challenges is sustaining a certain momentum within the Indian economy in spite of the global demand being where it is. I'm just flagging off a few indicators with which you may be seeing as to why I place India as a shining star and why I place India as the place where the next investments and interests in economic buoyancy should be focusing on. If the economy is going to be growing anywhere between 7 to 7.5 percent of the GDP, our currency stands out again. If you look at it, the way in which it has been standing up to the fluctuations in the currency market. And if I were only to compare it with the Brazilian currency or with the Russian ruble, I would still say Indian rupee holds very firm. And that speaks for the strength in the economy, the inherent strength in the Indian economy. And that's where although it's not a completely free currency, market doesn't fix it in every sense, without taking a pot shot at a very stronger neighbour, I would still say it's not happened the way you want us to hit the flow. And together with it, our stock markets have also behaved very responsibly. They've not crashed or they've not boomed. It's not a run for the bear or run for the bull. It's always been fairly balanced. Although you always wonder what is going to happen tomorrow. But that's the beauty of stock market. You always want to speculate and you can keep guessing. So whether it's the currency or whether it's the stocks, I think India normally gives you a stable picture, a picture where you would want it to move faster, move speedier. But I think in this world where you've seen the heat being generated in the stock markets, where currencies seem to be flying off and coming back, I think India offers a certain sense of stability, which I think today's economy is long to have. And I'm happy to say Indian economy's fundamentals are such strong that investors, not withstanding our bankruptcy laws or, you know, other difficulties, which are because of an archaic system, which we've just ignored for some time, notwithstanding all that, India still is an inviting investors domain. And I would want every investor to look at it afresh from these points of view. India also has a very young population, 65% of its total population, which is about, let's say 750 million, or well before the age of, well under the age of 35. And interestingly, we have a very high number of post graduates in science and maths. And nearly 12 million of our citizens are engineers and doctors or scientists. And it's growing to be a knowledge bank of the world. We are creating enough number of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics that anywhere in the world, in the next decade, you would have for every six experts, at least one Indian who's qualified to be there because he comes from that knowledge economy. You also have a growing and a very real middle class, which has such purchasing power, which asks for the best from anywhere in the world. So the market which is available in India is just not a market where you can throw goods and say, yes, it can absorb anything. It's a very discerning market. As much as it has a lot of cheaper bulk goods being imported, it's also a market which looks for quality products. And it has the purchasing power for it. So I think even if you look at it from the point of view of market where you can come and invest and produce, it's also a market which can draw a lot of goods from all over the world, which are of a certain quality. And therefore, investors are welcome. But those who are looking for market will have to look for ensuring first of all that they are talking about quality goods, which is what the Indian middle class, upper middle class are looking for. So in a world where depression in terms of demand not rising, here is a market which is waiting for goods, quality goods. Here is a market which is investors' best place to come and invest because there is also a captive market and also the best place to produce because you have qualified trained young personnel who can keep your production cost far low but yet reach out to the world because you will still be competitive producing there. For all this, the infrastructure and also the other lakune which we had faced all these years and decades are being addressed by the current government. I'll only very quickly capture one fundamental change which has happened which I'm sure my colleague who's also in town today dealing with the energy sector, Piyush Goyal will be able to elaborate in great detail. But I will say this. For a country prior to May 2004, 2014, which was known for power shortages, within a year and a half today, India is energy surplus. We have altered the system of production ensured that those capacities which are lying dormant have all been shaken up. Distribution of coal which is not the best of sources for producing energy but at least because we quickly had to do something and we have quite a lot of reserves of coal. We have done such adjustments that within a year and a half today, there's enough energy in the country. We are only having difficulties in terms of distribution network. The grid's capacities are all being now being kept up so that sooner that hurdle will also be crossed. In that, both the public investments in terms of roads and highways and seaports, more of seaport related activities and so on, public investment will increase. But let me also say the private investments, if I were to only take the data for private investment in infrastructure alone, you know India is governed by five-year terms of planning. The current one will end in 2017. By the time 2017 is on us, private sector's participation in infrastructure related investment will be up to 50%. So in a way, it is not just public spending. I'm taking the example of infrastructure, but that reflects in many other sectors too. The private sector participation, which two plans prior to the current one was only up to 20% and then it rose to about 38%. But now, before 2017, it shall be about 50%. In other words, Indian private sector's investments are being made far safer and far productive. That for the Indian investor himself, investing in long-term projects such as infrastructure is becoming attractive and I'm sure therefore that will be something of an indicator for investors from abroad to consider investing in infrastructure or long-term projects. Secretary Pritzker rightly referred to a bill which is in the parliament on settling commercial disputes fairly quickly by creating benches within the High Court, which have original jurisdictions. And a High Court is a place which is the top most court for the province. So in states, the High Courts are the ones which have the top most authority and it is only after the High Court settles a matter for appeal would you come to the Supreme Court and that's the top most of appeal courts. So if this bill gets passed and I don't see why there should be a difficulty, issues related to commercial disputes will all be quickly settled and predictably in the sense you'll know what is the course of time, what is the kind of litigation process which will have to be adopted. So there are several such steps being taken by the current government, legislative or administrative executive. More importantly, there's been quite a lot of reference about India's ranking in the use of doing business. I must say the department in my ministry has worked very hard with the World Bank and whilst we shall be ranked along with many other countries as was before, ranked 149 out of 189 is not a great deal. It's actually something which we've been very worried about. We've taken a lot of efforts to improve our position and I will only take this example to tell you how we've gone into great detail and not just sit in Delhi and take a decision, but gone into great detail to work with the States because ultimately you may plan in Delhi but action happens in the States. So we've worked with the States to say there are several such steps which you need to take at your level to clear the air so that investors or anyone who wants to do business is going to feel a bit better than what they do now. 98 such steps were identified and by June 30th of this year most States complied with it and ensured that they removed the hurdles or diluted the existing rigor and made it possible. They were ranked by World Bank from among within the Indian States and the rankings are out in the open only last week it was released. So if we are preparing ourselves to be ranked better among countries we've started doing that at home. Charity begins at home and we've done that and shown that within a year we've corrected our ways within India. So with all this said and with the political will which Prime Minister Modi has been showing in pushing India to be a better economy which is what it is in terms of comparison with many such comparable economies but also for the red tape which it had come to be known for shall no longer be what it will be known for and we have ensured that steps being taken with the political will of the Prime Minister will only make India a better place for all the investors or for those who are interested in economic activity to be looking at without taking more of your time and giving my initial opening statements. I think it's been a great morning in interacting with all of y'all. I'm sure there'll be Westminster sessions but I'm here to assure you through the strategic and commercial dialogue and also the trade policy forum for which again I will be coming in October to work together with the Secretary Foreman. India and the United States relationship is only bound to be better and in that the CEO forum particularly because now it is part of this whole strategic commercial dialogue have a very big role to play and I look forward to working with them in the near future for initiating several such steps which are required in bettering India-U.S. ties. Thank you very much. Thank you both so much for your thoughtful and eloquent and encouraging remarks. We only have about 20 minutes for discussion but I thought I'd start simply by highlighting I suppose the obvious and that is that I think the launching of the strategic and commercial dialogue especially the commercial dimension of that is an enormously promising and innovative step. It carries with it a lot of opportunities opportunities to help mobilize not just your two ministries but parts of the executive branches in both countries to connect even more effectively with a now newly expanded CEO forum but alongside those opportunities there's challenges too which is how do you use this kind of a mechanism systematically during the course of the year especially the first year of the strategic and commercial dialogue to build a really strong foundation for the future so I just wanted to ask both of you how you see those challenges and opportunities and what you'd really like to accomplish through the commercial dialogue you know over the course of this coming year. Well thank you Ambassador Burns. I think that there's a number of objectives that we have over the next year. First is I think to institutionalize the dialogue, develop processes and work streams and a regular bureaucratic engagement and regular engagement between the minister and myself so that we have a process by which we not only identify the challenges that we're trying to address but then also to resolve them and the resolution is complicated because there are issues that span beyond our ministries or departments that require other parts of our governments to resolve. The second thing I hope to do is to prioritize the policies where we'll focus and the private sector is really playing an enormous role in doing that whether it's in the ease of doing business area and for example to address let's call it cross-border trade issues like customs processes or things like that and it's hard you know not to get into the weeds very quickly with these issues because the impediments ultimately require us to get into very specific issues like let's say as I mentioned you know whether it's dealing with insolvency issues and commercial law or contract enforcement or regulatory transparency. Another you know important issue is tying our digital economies together. Very big opportunity for us or could be a big impediment. A second area of priority is infrastructure as the minister said it's a huge priority in India the goal or they're on a path to try and have 50% funded by the private sector. We've created an infrastructure collaboration platform but we still face and we're putting together trade missions and there's a lot of activity but we still face challenges on the finance side in that area that are very challenging. Standards harmonization would be another area where we hope to prioritize. It's critical to doing business together if we want our supply chains to be more intertwined we've got to have similar standards and that's not so simple. We've asked our private sectors to create a portal that will help us do that. There's information sharing that needs to go on. There's a lot to happen and then another area of priority is promoting innovation and entrepreneurship so we've decided to have an annual innovation forum which CSIS has agreed to be our private sector partner in putting that together. We're also putting together an innovation competition and all of this is informed by our private sectors. So to really you know the goal being figuring out how we institutionalize our engagement because this is new on the commercial side this kind of high level engagement and making sure it's not just big meeting to big meeting but that in between a lot is happening and the second is really prioritizing where we focus. Thank you very much Madam Minister. Yes these two platforms the strategic commercial dialogue and the trade policy forum will have to be sustained with continuous bureaucratic interaction that's the first thing and that once it happens it keeps spreading the message to various other departments too and gets on board other ministries other concerned departments to function together which is already seen happening in India and I'm glad that momentum will continue so that the process of institutionalizing the whole activity is already on and that will get for only firmer. The business forum the US India business forum have a very big role to play in this because at the moment every time bureaucratic interaction happens you're looking at what next for the government but what next for the economy and what next for the ground actually can be better described and better felt by the industry themselves and it is they who then will have to identify areas which will have to have a response from this institutionalized mechanism because this institutionalized mechanism can have a habit of moving on predictable course but the unpredictability has to come from the industry they have to say where the hurdles are where the government's decisions are really not reaching out and it is that interaction which I think will be unique and to start with a part of this process and therefore they can then spill over to other whether it's the European Union or any other area where we are working so this particular engagement to me brings in that unique dimension which is going to be performed by the business of both the countries it is they who have to now say where the hiccups are for the institutionalized governmental mechanism of both the countries to work towards. I place a lot of you know trust and dependence on that because to ease the whole activity it is they who have to hold the light and say this is where they need help and that's the process of institutionalizing with the private sector together with us and that's going to be a bit of a challenge. Well thank you thank you very much why don't we open up now to questions from the audience and what I would ask is you'd wait for the microphone to come to you identify yourself be concise and please remember to end with a question mark so let's start with Taze. Thank you Ambassador Burns, Teresita Schaefer from McLarty Associates and Brookings. I wanted to ask both of our speakers if they would get one level closer to the details and it would be interesting to know me what your say about process is wonderful I was in the Foreign Service for 30 years working mostly on India and this is music to my ears but if you had to pick out one or two top issues where you think we need to make some specific changes what would they be for the US what would they be for India? Next five years not just the short-term horizon. I think that the in the under the heading of ease of doing business I think dealing with these commercial law challenges is a really important issue whether it's dispute resolution both the process as well as the time it takes to resolve disputes bankruptcy law is absolutely critical to get that modernized and the reason I say that is a huge issue that is is financing and until we can address the private financing challenge of doing business in India it will limit the amount of investment that's possible either from the private side or in the infrastructure side and so these fundamental building blocks that are very weedy whether it's about commercial contract dispute resolution or bankruptcy law or customs procedures would be another one reliable customs procedures would be another very important area you know the US CEO forum has making 17 recommendations to us of places to work on so I'm really picking just a few that are areas of potential focus and if you look at the categories they across a significant number of our parts of our governments and so I would say the other big area that we have to work on the reason I'm we focused on institutionalization and processes this is new on the commercial side to have this kind of sustained engagement where we don't turn it on and off and we've got to get that right in order to actually then you know continually move through the various specific issues and a minister quite I'm free it's the commercial dispute settlement process which we are also very keen to get things sorted out and that's where I think the bill which is in the parliament is of critical value together with it we are repeatedly talking about ease of doing business and in that process there is a committee appointed in India a hyper word committee which is going through the whole process of identifying those laws which are archaic which have to be dumped also identify certain laws which are injurious for businesses to conduct their activities and this committee is working to very quickly come up with the recommendations which will help ease the framework of law within which one does business and if there are too many conflicting such laws this committee is definitely going to identify and suggest to the government that they should be removed so there is enough activity in India fairly comprehensive to look at ways in which ease of doing business can be brought in dispute settlement can be transparently handled and in a sort of ambitious way we would want India to become also an arbitration hub the focus that many of Indian based businesses Indian businesses or businesses which have been active in India of even overseas owners are all having their arbitration settled in Singapore or in the UK and many of the legal luminaries who participate in this arbitration activities are also Indian and we just wonder why it should happen just happen outside why can't the whole thing happen in India so the government has taken a lot of steps to ensure that arbitration at least those which pertain to India those which those which have relevance to India should first thing start happening in India so there is a process which is being also put together for that so and also the finance minister must have quite in his last visit has mentioned in the US that he is working towards having a simplified taxation structure that itself should bring in a big relief and probably gives a breath of fresh air for a country which has been waiting to simplify its taxation structures on the retrospective taxation enough has been said that we certainly don't believe in going in that route so I suppose in a way we are being upfront about the fact yes there are very many things which have to be done but we are very keen and with political will of the Prime Minister pushing this whole effort I see it happening sooner rather than later thank you very much yes ma'am seema sirui i'm a columnist for the economic times to minister sitaraman there's this the two mega trading packs coming into existence they're being negotiated so I was wondering what and there's a great sense here in this town that India is going to be left behind because India is not invited to be a member of a negotiations so I was wondering what your view is on that India believes in multilateralism we we we strongly believe the WTO has a very big role to play because it emphasizes on collective decision making it emphasizes on unanimity in decision making and most of the decisions are taken in a very transparent negotiated kind of a way nevertheless you also have several regional plurilateral negotiations which are going on we are very actively engaged in the RCEP which consists of the ASEAN and the ASEAN FTA countries so we actually in the RCEP are moving faster along with other members so if you're looking at India being left out that's not really true we are part of the RCEP and I'm not sure what sense of India being left out prevails in this town it's completely baseless I would want that sense to be out we are not lost here we are part of the RCEP and RCEP certainly includes very many countries which are part of your TTIP and Transatlantic so we are engaging with the RCEP and in the WTO since we invest a lot of our trust and faith and also because it's been one of those multilateral bodies we still think it has a big role to play and that is the only way in which trade and developmental related issues can be discussed because if I I'm not sitting on a judgment on plurilateral or mega partnerships about which we are talking but most of them do tend to focus on standardizations bringing homogeneity harmonizing and so on and talk mostly of non-tariff related matters whereas when you're looking at WTO it still has a role to play in terms of tariff and tariff related issues it has an it has at least a basket or it consists of countries which are developed not so developed and very less developed and therefore the voice of the world can be heard there I'm afraid if you confine trade and developmental related issues only to plurilateral you lose out on that voice of the world and you probably have a smaller club which is deciding the fate of the rest of us which may not be the idea thanks this one last question yes sir the back there I'm sorry thank you ambassador burns my name is Sanjeev Joshi Poran I'm collaborating with the U.S. Commerce Department in the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to speak with Indian business people at the select USA Roadshow upcoming in October in India in four major cities my question for Secretary Pritzker and Minister Sitaraman pertains to an area that many business people in both countries view as kind of the holy grail of collaboration between the two countries and that is a bilateral investment treaty or BIT just this morning in India's financial express newspaper and we've also heard in fact today during this event both minister Sitaraman and Secretary Pritzker talk about certain areas that need further resolution between the two countries such as trade access unification of standards expeditious judicial settlements and so on and so forth totalization agreement etc my question for both ministers is do you view work and progress on a BIT between the two countries as being sequential to after all of these other issues are resolved or is it something that can be worked on in parallel along with resolution on all of these other trade related issues thank you you know as we've discussed the minister and and I the agenda that we have for the strategic and commercial dialogue it's ambitious and we feel the pressure of time to accomplish the things that are on our agenda and so you know all of which are progress towards further types of agreements that we can have between ourselves I think what's important is that we demonstrate what we can get done in the short run that will accelerate the opportunity for our businesses to work with one another and focus what's on what's in front of us because that is extremely important and I think can jump start our relationship or let's say move it from where it is to a new level of engagement thanks Madam Minister I must first thank Mr. Joshi for racing totalization I don't utter it before but it's top of my agenda yes but investment treaty doesn't have to wait India's worked on a model draft treaty and we'll certainly talk about it there are issues which will have to be getting sorted out much before that reaches a crescendo but yes investment bilateral investment treaty is something which we'll have to focus a lot more we'll be keenly doing that and we are making other things possible before we really get to working on the treaty itself well thank you very much one of the worst parts of my job as moderator is bringing interesting and important discussions to a close but we do have a schedule reminded to keep to we'll take about a five minute break now but first I just want to ask all of you to join me in thanking Secretary Pritzker thank you very much your step I'm sorry how are you good to see you good to see you Tim good to see you how are you good