Skip to footer

Why US companies applaud embassy outreach to India's prospective PM

Regardless of whether opposition leader Modi, accused of human rights abuses, would in fact usher in a more business-friendly regime, restoring bilateral bonhomie is good for business.

|
Ajay Verma/Reuters
Supporters of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) listen to Gujarat's chief minister and Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for BJP during a live video broadcast campaign on 'Talk over tea with Modi,' in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh February 12, 2014.

The US embassy in India announced Tuesday that the ambassador will meet with prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, signaling a new State Department approach to a man who was once denied a US visa over human rights concerns.

For American firms doing business in India, a little fence-mending between US and Indian officialdom is surely a welcome development. The two countries are fresh off an emotionally-raw diplomatic feud this winter that called into question the warmth of their post-cold-war embrace.

By requesting a meeting with Mr. Modi, the US is signaling that the overall relationship is too important to be spoiled by tensions with individual leaders. And it suggests that the State Department agrees with the Indian media consensus that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is in a strong position heading into national elections this May.

“The understanding here is that the US has to do this because he is prospectively now the next prime minister,” says our correspondent in India.

The embassy may also be listening to the business community, our correspondent adds.... For the rest of the story, continue reading at our new business publication Monitor Global Outlook.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Why US companies applaud embassy outreach to India's prospective PM
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2014/0212/Why-US-companies-applaud-embassy-outreach-to-India-s-prospective-PM
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe