HERE WAS MORE THAN usual interest
among Indian diplomats in the delibera-
tions of the US Senate in the first week of
July. Amendments to the US’s National De-
fence Authorisation Act were being debat-
ed, one of which would put India, from the
US perspective, almost on a par with mem-
bers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion (NATO) in defence matters. Its provi-
sions provide the US the legal framework
it needs to increase cooperation with India
on counterterrorism, maritime security and
humanitarian assistance. The Bill, ratified
by the Senate, is now before the House of
Representatives, which is likely to take it
up before it adjourns for its August recess.
Though the original Bill, which would have
given India de facto NATO ally status was
somewhat watered down, it is still a big step
towards strengthening the strategic alli-
ance between the US and India.
Back in India, US e-commerce compa-
nies like Amazon and Walmart have been
complaining ever since the commerce and
industry ministry issued the controversial
“Press Note 2” in December 2018. It re-
stricts them to being only marketplaces,
on which retailers can sell their products,
restraining them from selling directly to
customers or even holding equity in retail-
ers which use their platform. They can thus
no longer inf luence the selling by offering
steep discounts, or sell particular prod-
ucts exclusively, as they used to earlier. The
government has also demanded that such
companies keep their data on local trans-
actions on servers located within India.
However, with the formation of a new gov-
ernment and new Commerce Minister Piy-
ush Goyal taking over, a new e-commerce
policy is being formulated. While this poli-
cy does not budge from the earlier position
on issues of deep discounts and predatory
pricing, it has excluded the matter of data
localisation, which will be tackled in the
Data Privacy Bill being prepared by the
IT ministry. Goyal has also said that he is
COMBATIVE
ALLIES
India and the US have
major differences on trade
and strategic matters,
but they are also trying
to accommodate
each other.By ANILESH S. MAHAJAN
Illustration by RAJ VERMATHE HUB POLICYT
ready to discuss all other issues.
These two instances illustrate the state of current India-US rela-
tions, which remain close but are beset with disagreements, as best
explained by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his recent In-
dia visit when he said: “Friends can have differences.” The US has also
been objecting to India setting up a non-profit public credit registry,
a repository of all loans taken by individuals and corporate houses in
the country, on the grounds that this will work against the four private
credit registries that are already operating in India. Of the four, Tran-
sUnion CIBIL and Equifax Credit Information Services are US compa-
nies, while the other two, Experian Credit Information and CRIF High
Mark Credit Information Services, though headquartered elsewhere,
have much business in US, too. A public credit registry was first sug-
gested by a Reserve Bank of India committee in April last year as an
early warning system to prevent non-performing assets, but its stron-
gest proponent was former RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya. With
Acharya resigning in late June, its setting up is likely to be delayed, more
so because the finance ministry was not as enthusiastic as he and want-
ed more stakeholder consultations first.
One of the US’s current priorities is isolating Iran and enforcing its46 I BUSINESS TODAY I August 11 I 2019