India and the United States signed a landmark Cooperation Framework Agreement on Wednesday to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation.
The agreement formalises the US Trade and Development Agency's programme with Indian public sector undertakings and cover activities like project preparation, trade capacity building, investment analysis and sectoral development.
Currently under review are technical cooperation with the Gas Authority of India Limited and Neyveli Lignite Cooperation involving gas transport and coal mining respectively.
The agreement was signed by India's Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Jha and US Ambassador David Mulford in the presence of Finance Minister P Chidambaram and visiting US Treasury Secretary John W Snow.
The agreement will foster India's ties with US public and private sector and support key bilateral initiatives like India-US Energy dialogue.
Wednesday's agreement will facilitate coordination of USTDA activities with Indian PSUs providing a mechanism for Finance Ministry review and approval of new activities.
This will also facilitate the starting of new initiatives in a broad range of key sectors like energy, environment and transportation.
USTDA advances economic development and US commercial interest in developing and middle-income countries.
The agency funds various technical assistance, feasibility studies, training, business workshop that support development of modern infrastructure and fair and open trade environment.