MUMBAI: U.S. President Barack Obama announced Saturday that “several landmark” deals worth U.S. $10 billion have been reached between the two countries that are expected to create 54,000 U.S. jobs.

He's also unveiling new export rules designed to make it easier for U.S. companies to do business with the nation of 1.2 billion people.
Obama kicked off his visit at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Mumbai. The Taj was besieged for three days almost two years ago by militants, who also attacked other hotels, a restaurant popular with Western tourists and a Jewish cultural center, killing over 160 people.
“Those who attacked this city wanted to demoralize this city and this country. But they failed,” Obama said. The terrorists arrived from Pakistan but Obama did not mention Pakistan in his remarks.
Obama – whose trip is overwhelmingly economical in nature -- was to make the announcements in a speech to U.S. and Indian business executives Saturday on the first day of his 10-day, four-country Asia trip.
The commercial deals include the purchase of 33 Boeing 737s by India's SpiceJet Airlines and the Indian military's plans to buy aircraft engines from General Electric.
“There is no reason why India cannot be our top trading partner (from 12th position now)… that relationship between India and the U.S. are going to be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century,” Obama said addressing the U.S. India Business Council as he started his three-day visit to India.
For the most part, the deals were already pending. But the White House claims Obama's visit to India helped seal them.
Some 20 deals are in the pipeline, including previously announced transactions involving General Electric and Boeing, although details on a $4.5 billion sale by Boeing of C-17 military transport planes were still being ironed out.
Outlining a series of measures to ease export controls, Froman said the president will support Indian membership of four key global nuclear nonproliferation regimes.
""This really includes India as a major player in a non-proliferation world...and it recognizes the nature of the strategic relationship we now have with India,"" he said.
The four regimes are the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australian Group, which aims to reduce the spread of chemical and biological weapons, and the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multinational effort to control the transfer of conventional arms and dual-use technology.
Obama will also remove almost all of the remaining Indian defense and space organizations from a list of entities maintained by the U.S. government to curb proliferation, and relax so-called dual-use rules for Indian firms that regulate technology with both civil and defense applications.
""We will end up treating India similar to other close allies and partners other than as a country of concern,"" Froman said.
---House of Mahatma Gandhi
Obama visited the house of Mahatma Gandhi in Mumbai on Saturday and hailed the Father of the Indeian Nation as a “hero not just to India but to the world.
Obama, who is self-confessed hero of Gandhi, accompanied by his wife Michelle spent about 45 minutes going around the simple, old-style, two-storied building on Laburnum Road in South Mumbai where Gandhi stayed during his visits to Mumbai.
(Source: The Economic Times)
Photo: U.S. President B. Obama and wife Michelle toured the Mani Bhavan, Saturday, November 6, 2010. It is where Mahatma Gandhi lived from 1917-1934. The three-story building is now home to a museum.
(Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times)