Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the United States, India Inc. has revealed it has high expectations from the tour, which it also felt would firm up strategic ties between the two nations.
An opinion poll of top representatives of 100 leading Indian companies carried out by industry chamber Assocham found that a majority of them wanted New Delhi to secure Washington's support for the proposed India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline.
An overwhelming 90 per cent of them felt strong Indo-US ties would be a source of peace and stability in Asia as well as in other parts of the world.
Two-thirds of the respondents were of the view that the visit would help in commercial and economic integration, while 50 per cent of them expected cooperation in science, education and culture to be futher intensified.
In a background paper prepared by it, the chamber had identified IT, infrastructure, telecom, energy and knowledge industries as key areas of cooperation, which would strengthen the future prospects for Indo-US economic ties.
Top sectors attracting FDI from the US are fuels (35.93 per cent), telecom (10.56 per cent), electrical equipment (9.5 per cent), food processing industries (9.43 per cent) and services (financial and non-financial) sector (8.28 per cent).
India's import basket from the US comprise engineering goods and machinery, precious stone and metals, organic chemicals, optical instruments and equipment, aviation and aircraft.
The country's major exports to the US include diamonds and precious stone, iron and steel, textiles and inorganic chemicals.