PHOTO LEFT, Men blow traditional horns during a procession to mark the beginning of the Nepalese Year 2062 in Kathmandu on April 14. PHOTO ABOVE, Sikh pilgrims from India chant slogans as they arrive at the Wagah railway station along the India-Pakistan border on April 11. Thousands of Sikhs, including three thousands from India, were scheduled to participate in the Baisakhi mela on April 14 in Gurdwara Punja Sahib Hassanabdal, located in Pakistan which is the third sacred city of the Sikh religion. PHOTO RIGHT, children hold the Bangladeshi flag during Bengali New Year celebrations in Dhaka, on April 14. Bengali people marked the year 1412 with festivities in India’s West Bengal and in Bangladesh. (Photos: AFP)

A delegation of Indian businessmen, led by the country’s Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, began a series of roadshows in U.S. cities.

Titled ‘IndiaConnect-USA,’ the delegation included Sunil Kant Munjal, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). “The entire idea of IndiaConnect is to build on the growing India-U.S. partnership and also position India as a knowledge hub,” a press release said.

Sibal addressed a packed house of business people and policy makers on April 8 at Seattle. He was joined by Congressman Jim McDermott and Secretary of State of Washington, Sam Reed.

Home to powerhouses such as Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing and Costco, the Greater Seattle community is a vibrant port city with much potential for investment and trade with India. The morning symposium was sponsored by supercomputer company Cray Inc. and was organized in partnership with Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle and Word Trade Center, Tacoma.

In his keynote address at a luncheon meeting, hosted by the Washington Council of International Trade and sponsored by Microsoft, Sibal reinforced the message that the new India is welcoming investment, and is eager to form a renewed engagement with the U.S., but on equal terms. The CII press release said he also articulated the emergent opportunities in biotechnology referring to his recently announced biotech strategy for which his ministry has been seeking feedback. Sibal also toured Microsoft facilities and had meetings with Craig Mundie, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft and Rick Rashid, Head of Microsoft Research. He had a meeting with some 200 Indian employees of Microsoft as well.

In Seattle, the Minister launched the Indian American Council, a new initiative undertaken by the CII to connect the network of Indian Americans to opportunities in India. This council, co-chaired by technology guru Sam Pitroda and Anil Kumar of McKinsey, is being developed as a “clearing house” of opportunities that these people can tap into, related to India’s economic development.

The delegation has the backing of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector wing of the World Bank.

IFC’s Acting President Assaad Jabre, speaking at a business lunch in Washington, told attendees, his organization was extremely upbeat about India but that there are opportunities in certain sectors of the Indian economy that are still underdeveloped, such as tourism, agri-processing, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.

Speaking to an audience of some 200 participants at the event organized by the CII and the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Jabre said the IFC remains very bullish on India. The USIBC, a membership organization, comprises the top 125 U.S. companies investing in India, and had as its Chairman Rajat Gupta of McKinsey and Co. until February when he was succeeded by Charles Kaye, Co-President of Warburg Pincus LLC, a leading global private equity firm with substantial investments in India. The IFC was the principal sponsor of the Washington, D.C. event which included panels on how the Indian economy is performing, the extent to which it is getting integrated with the world economy, and how India represents both a selling and a buying destination.

The the two keynote speakers at the lunch were Theodore W. Kassinger, U.S. deputy secretary of commerce, and E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Indian minister of state for commerce and industry. Elangovan said the U.S. and India were entering a “new and exciting” phase in their relationship. He also emphasized the present government’s commitment to economic change in India to make it more conducive to foreign investment.