One of the key agendas on Arun Jaitley's plate during his ongoing visit to the US is to engage the American government in a dialogue on farm subsidies and its impact on agriculturists in India.
Speaking at a luncheon organised at the Asia Society on Tuesday, Jaitley, India's Minister for Commerce & Industry, said farm subsidies by the US and other developed countries tended to depress prices in developing and underdeveloped countries.
"US farm subsidies are currently almost $1bn a day and an import surge from here that drives down prices can mean destitution for millions of Indian farmers," he said. "The US and India have to understand each others problems and create adequate windows to address them."
Jaitley, however, admitted that the food surplus that India had built up was having an adverse impact on the country.
He also said that he would take up the issue of proposed legislation in some US states to block business process outsourcing to India.
"While there is talk of market access, we hear of steps of market denial here," Jaitley said. "In India, we have a ruthlessly free press and a very strong public opinion and we have to answer these questions which is why the US and India need to be engaged continually in dialogue."
Describing India as the leader of the developing world and one that has set itself "a target of joining the league of the developed nations by 2020", Jaitley said it was one of the few democracies that had survived.
"Even when democracies were toppling across the world -- there were military regimes, governments were being overthrown -- India sustained each of those challenges and continued to be a society governed under the rule of law."
Stating that India and the US now had commonality in the fight against terror, Jaitley made special mention of the casualties India has suffered over the past decade.
"We have lost about 62,000 civilians and over 8,000 security personnel to terrorism," he said, adding,"once, a security analyst told me that we have seized 48,000 kilograms of explosives in the past decade, enough to wipe out every inch of India."
Talking of Indo-US trade relations, Jaitley pointed out that 65 per cent of American investors in India had started making profits and said, "India has one of the largest middle class population in the world, one that can match America's."
