By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – A delegation of Indian business leaders wrapped up a Western New York tour over the weekend. U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined the team on the information gathering visit that began at UB. It's part of an effort to forge stronger business and diplomatic ties with India.
Students, faculty and Secret Service swormed around Senator Clinton as she led the delegation through UB's technology showcase on Friday. At first glance, it was difficult to tell who might be delegation members. A growing number of UB's population -- staff and students -- are from India. That's one reason the university hosted the group and formalized an agreement to work more closely with them.
The visit was arranged by Senator Clinton long before the political tensions in India. Clinton says political realities and common goals for humanity must be worked on together.
"In a way, the very positive vision that we share, about the kind of world where people are healthier, and people are better educated, and people have a more peaceful future, has to be worked on just as hard as preserving and expanding our national security," Clinton said.
Ashtook Soota is president of the Confederation of Indian Industry. He says they are committed to working through the political obstacles, to forge a stronger relationship with UB.
"We will have a technology mission here in July, a bio-tech team again coming in September," said Soota. "We are really very happy that there has been a de-escalation. We do believe that this is a transatory issue, and we are quite sure that with the support and sympathy that we are getting, including what we just heard here from Senator Clinton, this will be something that will soon be over and we can all move ahead."
The delegation concluded its tour over the weekend in Rochester, also meeting with business leaders there.