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.

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