Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

India ‘More Important’ Than China As an Ally to U.S.

By Bruce Stokes, Director of Global Economic Attitudes, Pew Research Center

Special to Business Standard

With India slated to elect a new government early next year and the Barack Obama administration heading into the last three years of its tenure, can New Delhi and Washington build a stronger relationship, much as the administration of George W. Bush was able to do in its second term? A new opinion poll by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed both the American public and U.S. foreign policy experts, provides mixed signals about the prospect for deepening Indo-American ties.

The U.S. public’s view of India has soured in recent years. In 2008, the year of the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear agreement, 63 per cent of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center had a favourable perception of India. This year, that positive opinion has fallen sharply to 46 per cent.

Read more at Business Standard

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