Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, US), Apr. 27 : A senior Obama administration official has said the controversy surrounding the outsourcing of jobs from the United States to India or China will always be a "hot button issue", especially around the time of elections in his country, but added that he sees economic relations between Washington and New Delhi remaining balanced and progressing along expected lines.

In an interview after addressing the Wharton-India Forum, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake Junior told Knowledge@Wharton: "When unemployment (in the US) is high, people naturally take a look at these kinds of things (outsourcing). The point I would make about our economic relations with India is that they're increasingly balanced. The kinds of off-shoring is the word I would prefer to use, that is taking place is an economic reality around the world now, and that all companies have plants in China, and in India to basically be able to avail themselves of whatever the opportunities are in those countries. Every country has slightly different opportunities and advantages to offer."

For instance, he said that a big company like GE will not hesitate to open or have research centers all over the world to capitalize on. He also said that with the existence of the internet, companies like GE were now in a position to bring "all their scientists and engineers together in one big web and pool that knowledge and those ideas and to create something really interesting."

"That's what's happening. I think that that's the competitive edge that every company needs, and that's true of India, too. India's doing exactly the same thing in reverse. The Infosys' of the world, and Tata and others are setting up their own centers in Iowa and Michigan and places like that. That's the point I always make to American audiences is that yes some of this is happening, but this is part of keeping these companies in business and secondly, the Indians are doing the same in reverse," he added.

"A lot of new Indian investment is coming in and the pace is quite dramatic. It's 50 percent increase every single year. So we're going to see a lot more of this coming over time. That's a very good thing for us," Secretary Blake said.

Dwelling on the impact of tourism on US-India ties, Blake said: "That one of the really interesting manifestations of the rise of the middle class in India has been that for services like, of course IT, but even tourism --
650,000 Indians visited the United States last year. That itself represented a 20 percent increase from the year before, and they are now the 10th largest source of foreign travelers into the United States, which is a very good thing."

He also was all praise for the economic reforms initiated by Prime Minister Singh 20 years ago when he was India's Finance Minister.

Blake said: "I think the reforms have had a profound effect on India. Not just economically, but in terms of India's entire outlook. When I first arrived in India, India was still slightly inward-looking but was just beginning to change. I think as a result of the economic reforms, growth began to generate resources and those resources gave the Indian government and Indian society the wherewithal to expand their strategic horizons and to expand their strategic ambitions."

"India in the last seven or eight years has really stepped into that space in a very significant way, in partnership with the United States in part. You really see now that India wants to play a global role and wants to exert its very positive influence around the world. That's one of the most important new dynamics that's taking place I think in the early part of this century," he added.

He said that President Barak Obama is keen to partner with India, and India too wanted to work with the United States.

"It (India), wants to be a responsible member of the international community, has the resources to do so, and it has the will to attack some of the really tough issues like global governance issues and climate change and non-proliferation, and to work in tandem with the United States to do that. That is a very very important development for the United States and that's why President Obama says that India's going to be a defining partnership of ours in the 21st Century," he concluded. (ANI)