Ambassador Blackwill was a key note speaker at the IIT50 conference held at San Jose , CA on Jan 18, 2003. In his talk titled “Transforming the US-India relationship” the Ambassador outlined the changing nature of the US-India relationship in the 21st century under the leadership of President Bush.

The Ambassador began by congratulating the Alumni on the IIT50 and announced that he had made the visit from India with the specific purpose of being at this very important meeting.

The Ambassador spoke about the respect and fascination that President Bush had for India. “President Bush has a global approach to the US-India relation consistent with the rise of India as a world power” said Blackwill.

His speech encompassed a range of subjects from visas, terrorism, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, fighting HIV/AIDs, and the opportunities and challenges that exists for investing in India.

“The Indian-American community has doubled in the past ten years and is now about two million strong. With the total number of Indian students now more than 66,000 , India has now become the number one source of foreign students for American colleges and universities. Since Indian became a software giant , almost same number of “H1b – temporary worker visa petitions” has been approved for Indian citizens as the rest of the world“, said Blackwill.”The new security measures since 9/11 should have no effect on the ability to get visa or the time it takes to have it issued. Indeed the overall visa issuance rate for India is the same today as it was before 9/11”, said Blackwill.

On the subject of terrorism he spoke of zero tolerance for terrorism. “Those who murder innocents for political motives and who seek to bring down the very pillars of democracy – in New York, in Washington, at the Assembly in Srinagar, at the Parliament in New Delhi are murderers and not misunderstood idealists. They are not freedom fighters”, said Blackwill. He was very optimistic about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.He felt strongly that India and Pakistan could and should resolve their differences in a peaceful manner. But he also spoke about the opportunities being narrowed by terrible acts of terrorist violence and assured that “the United States will continue to urge President Musharraf to do everything in his power to end permanently terrorist infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir”

While Blackwill spoke of the progress made in Indo-US relations on many fronts during the past year, he was still rather pessimistic about American investment in India. “Americans hate to invest in India because of the uncertainty over India’s economic reforms”, said Blackwill. He compared the Indian and Chinese economies. “China’s GDP has increased 10% a year over the last 20 years as opposed to India’s 6% growth rate. China’s per-capita income is $900 , roughly twice that of India. China has 15 computers for every thousand as opposed to 4.5 in India.” But he emphasized that India’s large and talented labor pool makes it possible for it to make progress if it could toss its “License Raj”

He ended his speech on a very positive note saying “ I am convinced that India and America will together increasingly help preserve the peace in years to come”. Victor Menezes , CEO of Citi Bank thanked the Ambassaador for chosing the IIT50 to make a major political speech.

The complete text of the speech may be found at http://www.iit.org/blackwill_speech.htm

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