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Prime Minister

Narendra Modi speaking at a reception hosted by US-India Business Council during his trip to the United States. (PTI file photo)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Barack Obama. The two leaders have announced to strengthen India-US relations after their first meeting.

NEW DELHI: While much has been made of the US' decision to revoke PM Narendra Modi 's visa in 2005, the issue did not figure at all in his discussions with President Barack Obama either over the dinner at White House or the bilateral meet between the two leaders next day. Official sources also said that the success of Modi's trip to the US had paved the way for investments worth $ 41 billion from the US into India in the next few years.“PM has said he does not hold any grudge against the issue and President Obama too chose not to bring up the issue at the meetings he had with the PM,'' said a government source here, adding that Modi's visit to the country was a “game-changing'' one.“That's because the visit has put bilateral ties now in an altogether higher trajectory,'' the source said. Asked to identify takeaways from the visit, sources cited the announcement by USIBC ( US-India Business Council ) about investments worth $ 41 billion into India in the next 3 years.“This is actually only 20% of what is expected from the US. Because of the kind of majority he has in Parliament, and also his ability to get things done based on Gujarat model, the PM commanded a lot of respect among prospective US investors and this has done wonders for the global investor sentiment,'' said an official source, adding that the visit marked an intersection of foreign policy priorities and domestic issues.USIBC told Modi during the visit that it had identified upwards of $41 billion for investment by its members in India within the next 3 years. Ficci has welcomed the development saying this was very encouraging given Modi's emphasis on making India a manufacturing hub. The development is being seen as a “harbinger’’ of transformative projects that would be launched by the private sector from both sides and would contribute to realising Modi’s vision for manufacturing excellence.Sources said that Modi and Obama hit off really well when they first met for the dinner at White House with the two leaders even exchanging notes on issues related to technology and their election campaigns.According to sources, both the leaders “reaffirmed'' their commitment to implement fully the US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement despite serious differences over India's nuclear liability law. The two countries have established a Contact Group on advancing the implementation of civil nuclear energy cooperation in order to realize early “their shared goal of delivering electricity from US-built nuclear power plants in India''.They said the two countries are looking forward to advancing the dialogue to discuss all implementation issues, including but not limited to administrative issues, liability, technical issues, and licensing to facilitate the establishment of nuclear parks, including power plants with Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi.