JOIN USThe delegation to be co-led by Indian American Chopra, who is Chief Technology Officer for the US President, and Secretary of State's Senior Advisor for Innovation Alec Ross, would travel to New Delhi and Rajasthan.
Obama is scheduled to visit India in November. This Delegation is an important first step of the US-India Innovation Exchange, announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna during the June 4 US-India Strategic Dialogue.
As a product of the US-India Strategic Dialogue, this Innovation Exchange reinforces Obama's and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's commitment to strengthening Indo-US robust relationship through partnerships in the many areas in which the two countries have common interests, an official US release said.
Technology is one area where the US and India share not only common interests but also common innovation-based cultures devoted to cutting-edge research and visionary entrepreneurship, it said.
Both the US and India are recognised global leaders in a variety of technology sectors, from software and computing, to telecommunications and energy, it said.
The Technology Delegation is designed to leverage US and Indian expertise to help produce real-world technology solutions in three areas of energy, education, and e-Governance.
Through meetings with Indian business and government leaders, and visits to innovative Indian organisations, we aim to spur productive discussion and thought around identifying new projects, the State Department said.
"This Delegation aims to deliver projects ready for investment and ultimate market entry. All projects will be characterized by strong US-India collaboration and a clear path to execution," the statement said.
"Project ideas can take many forms, including public-private partnerships, private-private joint ventures; and working groups dedicated to finding new ways to tackle big problems," it said.
"Given that the US and India share strong cultures of creative idea generation and innovative risk-taking, we are optimistic about the potential of new projects arising from the Delegation," the State Department said.