India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman will co-chair on the Indian side while US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will be from the American side.

While the strategic dialogue will be taken care of by Sushma Swaraj and John Kerry, the commercial aspect will be headed by Sitharaman and Pritzker for which India's Commerce Secretary Rita Teotia and US Unaer Secretary for Commerce, Stefan Selig had inter ministerial discussion last month in Washington to finalise the agenda, structure and deliverables for the first ministerial level meeting

The issues that are likely to be taken up for discussion at 'strategic & commercial dialogue' (S&CD) from both sides were deliberated at length under the aegis of each of the six Joint Working Groups, an Indian government statement said after the Commerce Secretary level talks but from India's point of view the most imprtant issue in the commercial dialogue would be the visa issue that has been hindering movement of personnel from India for quite sometime, particularly software engineers critical for booming IT and IT enabled services exports.

US is expected to raise the issue of ease of doing business in India. India has been ranked poorly in the ease of doing business index at 142 last year. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has however promised to work hard on this front and that he would bring India to less than 50 in that index in the short time. The government has taken several steps on this front ever since it came to power in May 2014, but on the ground nothing tangible has happened so far.

Innovation, which is lacking generally in India with not much professionalisation of research and development and entrepreneurship, lacking particularly in state enterprises would figure prominently in the discussion. United States in particular is worried about intellecttual property rights (IPR) issues. Though India has very strong IPR laws, which are WTO compliant, there is no comprehensive IPR policy. Modi government has already promised to come out with one during the bilateral talks last year when Kerry visited India. Since then India has been working on it and perhaps some roadmap in this regard is likely to emerge during the commercial and strategic dialogue in Washington later this month.

Smart Cities and special focus on renewable energy is something India is very keen on seeking global cooperation particularly United States. India has already announced developent of 98 smart cities in the country and billions of dollars are to be spent on their development. It provided ample opportunity for US investment in India. Both US and Canadian pension funds are sitting on huge pile of cash, which is estimated to be over $ 600 billion. With slowing global economy with European economy in virtual shambles and Chinese economy having strain, India is the only major destination of investment. With Insurance and pension reforms already in place in India, there could be some forward movement in this regard. Foreign Direct Investment in both insurance and pension are allowed up to 49 per cent and several US insurance companies are eager to step up their investment in India.

India is keen to promote renewable energy, particularly solar and wind energy. India recently stepped up the target to achieve 100,000 MW of solar power by 2022 from the earlier target of 20,000 MW. The target has been stepped up five times. This is expected to result in an investment of $200 billion. United States along with Germany and Japan are pioneers in solar energy development. Already several US companies are in India and more are expected to come out with their investment plans. India proposed to add 60,000 MW of wind energy in the next five years and that too offered huge opportunity for US companies.

Trade facilitation is yet another issue that comes up often in such bilateral dialogues. Customs procedure and huge delay and long waiting at Indian ports which considerably delay turnaround of Ships is an issue and investment in ports and other infrastructure too figure prominently at the talks. With the Trade facilitation agreement already agreed upon at the WTO, there will be pressure on India to carry it forward more vigorously. India too is keen to prsue this on its own as it is turning out to be a major bottleneck and several investors including foreign have been complaining about it.

Harmonisation of standards to increase trade is one area that will figure in Indo-US bilateral trade talks.

Long delay in issue of visa to Indian professionals have been a thorny issue particularly in grant of HIB visa, which provides for work permit for expatriates in United States. Thought United States in June had said that serious delays in operations at the US embassy here were due to technical prolems with the visa system, there are fears that the delays occur frequently apparently due to indirect restrictions imposed on Indian professionals going to United States. The technical problems arise not only in US embassy in Delhi but as well in US consulate in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. For India this is one major thorny issue between the two countries and this is one issue which is at the top of the agenda, a commerce ministry official said.

Though India-US dialogue has been in existence since 2000, this is for the first time strategic and commercial dialogue have been clubbed together so as to have better coordination as several issues are inter-related. For example Visa issue is handled by external affairs ministry but is has a serious bearing on trade and commercial issues. A coordinated dialogue will help in proper understanding of handicaps at the commercial level by external affairs ministry. So also strategic implications could be better understood by the commerce ministry. The Delhi Declaration adopted during the visit of US President Barrack Obama to India early this year decided on composite dialogue for this purpose.

The Strategic and commercial dialogue will be the signature, annual dialogue hereafter and It would serve as a high-level meeting between senior government and Cabinet officials as well as a continuing, sustainable forum for policy discussions.The commercial track would be a platform for both short-term and long-term deliverables and the dialogue would focus on securing near-term trade and investment outcome as well as long-term collaborations.

According to, the US Commerce Department, the US enjoys a robust trade and investment relationship with India. Two-way trade between the US and India has grown five-fold since 2000, and reached about USD 96 billion in 2013. This is now expected to grow five fold in the next five years to $500 billion. US companies have made investments in India totalling $28 billion and Indian foreign direct investment in the US stands at $ 9 billion. This is expected to be stepped up substantially particularly in smart cities, renewable energy and infrastructure. Several US companies are keen on investment in defence production as well with India raising the FDI capt in defence to 49 per cent.

'Our first Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, which Secretary Kerry and Secretary Pritzker will co-host in Washington this September, will showcase these efforts (of the last 10 years) and give us a new platform to build on past results and work toward future progress,' Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told a CII meet in Washington recently.(IPA Service)