Even as the Modi government faces multiple challenges in ushering fast-tracking economic reforms to spur economic growth, the US government has offered to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A senior Obama administration official said on Thursday that America is ready to help the Modi government overcome "bureaucratic and infrastructure" hurdles.
"The Modi government is aware of the hurdles, and while it is not moving as fast as some would like, it has taken a number of initial, positive steps," PTI quoted Arun M Kumar, US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets, as saying.
"We stand ready to help India address its internal challenges," said Kumar, at an event organised by US think-tank Atlantic Council at Washington.
The BJP-led NDA government has initiated many steps to bring the economy back on track but not as fast as the US expects, said the official, highlighting that India-US commercial ties have significant scope to grow.
Kumar, who is also Director General for the US and Foreign Commercial Service, said India faces challenges from "bureaucratic capacity; the overall ease of doing business; systemic infrastructure bottlenecks; and the challenge of finding adequate financing to complete infrastructure and other large-scale projects."
In its 2015 report, the World Bank has ranked India at 130 in its "Ease of Doing Business" index, up 12 places compared to last year's ranking, citing reforms made by the Modi government in the past one year.
"India's vast untapped potential makes playing the long-game worthwhile," said Kumar.
He said that the growing economic ties between the two nations will help in building "even greater political cooperation".
"Exports to India support 180,000 US jobs, and India's exports to our country support roughly 365,000 Indian jobs. US firms employ about 840,000 people in India, while Indian-owned companies employ nearly 44,000 people in our communities," he said.
