Former Congressman Dr. Tim Roemer is returning to the USA from his two years as the US Ambassador to India. Replacing him in New Delhi will be Los Angeles native and bow-tie wearing Dr. A. Peter Burleigh.  A distinguished career U.S. Foreign Service officer who served as Ambassador and Deputy Representative of the United States to the United Nations before he retired after 33 years of service in August 2000, Burleigh needs to be approved by the Senate.  Prior to his U.N. post, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives (1995-1997).

Dr. Peter Burleigh, new US Ambassador-designate

Ambassador Burleigh held a number of senior positions at the State Department and served in United States embassies in Nepal, Bahrain, and India, as well as Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Burleigh received his undergraduate degree from Colgate University, served in the Peace Corps (1963-1965) in Nepal, doing community development work in the far west of that country, and spent a year on a Fulbright scholarship in Nepal.  Ambassador Burleigh speaks Bengali and Hindi. He is the first US Ambassador to India to be fluent in the language.  He lived Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a number of years and  served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Miami. He is also one of the first open gay members of the US diplomatic corps; some in India may find that controversial in a country that technically outlaws homosexuality, based on Victorian British era laws. Burleigh was posted in New Delhi from April to July 2009 as charge d’affairs in the US Embassy New Delhi.

At Osmania University, Hyderabad, India in 2009

What this means

The first US ambassador to have considerable South Asia experience and certainly the first to speak Hindi will be an asset. But some may argue that his lack of recent prominence means that India is fading in importance to the Obama administration. I am reluctant to draw that conclusion, let us give Amb Burleigh a few months to engage in his role and then judge how it goes.

In 2010 American exports to Asia exceeded shipments to the Europe for the first time ever. Yesterday, I met U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke who was in Los Angeles to promote President Obama’s  National Export Initiative (NEI), which seeks to double American exports to $2 trillion by 2014.

Speaking at the Asia Pacific Business Outlook conference, Locke said exports now supported 10 million jobs in America, including 700,000 in California. One in three manufacturing jobs and one in five agricultural jobs in the United States were tied directly to exports. In addition, exports were a key driver of economic recovery in the past two years, accounting for nearly half U.S. economic growth since 2009, according to Locke.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and me

In my work at Amritt, my colleagues and I are vigorous supporters of the NEI. In fact the topic of my talk at the same conference was how to increase exports to India five-fold not just two-fold; we believe that this is quite doable.

Secretary Locke, the first Chinese American to hold a cabinet post, is expected to become the next U.S. Ambassador to China  by June of this year.

Takeaway: Asia and India in particular is hugely important to America’s economic engine going forward.

When I was part of the Presidential Executive Mission to India last November,  General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney flanked Barack Obama in his first public appearances in Mumbai.  Immelt’s  GE Energy unit had just won its largest order  in India to supply  six gas turbines, three steam turbines and generators for a 2,400 megawatt power plants being built by billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy in the small town of Samalkota, Andhra Pradesh.

Last month, President Obama was at General Electric’s plant where these turbines are being built. Here is what he had to say

That’s why I traveled to India a few months ago — and Jeff was there with us — where our businesses were able to reach agreement to export $10 billion in goods and services to India.  And that’s going to lead to another 50,000 jobs here in the United States.  (Applause.)  Part of the reason I wanted to come to this plant is because this plant is what that trip was all about.  As part of the deal we struck in India, GE is going sell advanced turbines — the ones you guys make — to generate power at a plant in Samalkot, India — Samalkot, India.  Most of you hadn’t heard of Samalkot — (laughter) — but now you need to know about it, because you’re going to be selling to Samalkot, India.  And that new business halfway around the world is going to help support more than 1,200 manufacturing jobs and more than 400 engineering jobs right here in this community — because of that sale.  (Applause.)

So it’s a perfect example of why promoting exports is so important.  That’s why I’ve set a goal of doubling American exports within five years.  And we’re on track to do it.  We’re already up 18 percent and we’re just going to keep on going, because we’re going to sell more and more stuff all around the world.  (Applause.)   When a company sells products overseas, it leads to hiring on our shores.  The deal in Samalkot means jobs in Schenectady.  That’s how we accelerate growth.

I have maintained that exports from America are crucial to the recovery. Exports to India can go up by 500 percent or more in five years, if governments are supportive. This is good for poor farmers in near Samalkot whose children can’t get light to study at night. It is good for engineers in New York.  Let’s make it happen, friends.

Last night U.S. President Barack Obama  mentioned India twice in his annual State of the Union speech. While both allusions were appropriate, they missed the point a bit.

First he said, “Meanwhile, nations like China and India realized that with some changes of their own, they could compete in this new world. And so they started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science.“  Yes it is true that students in China and India are often much better at math and science than their American public school counterparts, this is NOT a new realization in India (or China). Indians have been good at mathematics for 2,000 years or more, from the invention of  “Zero” to the creation of a form of calculus.  We need to change the thinking in the United States in a deep way to embed a respect for science and math at the earliest age.

India figures twice in State of the Union

Then talking about the economy, Obama added, “To help businesses sell more products abroad, we set a goal of doubling our exports by 2014 -– because the more we export, the more jobs we create here at home.  Already, our exports are up.  Recently, we signed agreements with India and China that will support more than 250,000 jobs here in the United States.” That’s nice Mr. President, but we need ten million new jobs in the United States. I am on record saying that we can increase American exports to India by 500 percent, see my article in Business Week in October.  We need more visionary goals.

File this blog entry under “trivia”.

In the past, I have written about how an Indian company, Tata Motors, now owns the Land Rover company, which makes cars for the Queen of England.  Corporate India’s long arm now extends to the White House as well, since President Obama’s favored suitmaker, Hartmarx Corporation, is owned by S. Kumar & Company. President Obama wore a tux made by the company’s Hart Schaffner Marx, based in Chicago at his inauguration.

In June 2009, The acquisition of Hartmarx Corporation, one of the last remaining American clothing manufacturers, brought 34 clothing brands, including some iconic ‘Made in America’ brands such as Reid & Taylor and Hart Schaffner Marx. The company acquired Chicago-based Hartmarx through its US subsidiary SKNL North America BV, along with its operating partner Emerisque UK for an enterprise value of  $120 million and announced a further investment of $35 million into the entity.

President Obama shows Hart label on "The View"

When President Obama visited India, S Kumar gained some notoriety by running a one-off ad in major Indian newspapers showing the President on the TV program “The View” with his label showing.