‘Indian Americans play vital role in enhancing ties’

“I think, what gives a real, solid and fundamental basis to the (India-US) relationship is the people-to-people dimension of the relationship,” Singh told members of the Indian American community in Cleveland and those attending Republican National Convention here at a reception hosted in his honour. At present there are 3.5 million Indian-Americans in the US and they are all over the US. There are 110,000 Indian-origin doctors in the US, he said, adding that recent statistics show that every seventh patient in the US is seen by an Indian doctor.

Forty per cent of all hotel rooms in the US are owned and managed by people of Indian-origin, generating USD 13 billion to the US economy, he said. Not only this, every year about 1,40,000 Indian students come to the US for higher studies bringing is about USD 4.5 billion to the US economy, he said. “So its a huge engagement with US institutions,” said Singh. 

Referring to the Republican platform passed by early this week, India-US relationship would strengthen further and reach a new height under the next Republican president. India US relationship has a bipartisan support and would deepen further if the party is voted to power to the White House coming November, he said. 

Shivangi, a delegate to the Republican National Convention, has been organising a reception for the Indian Ambassador for the last three conventions.