India and the U.S. announced the agreement series in critical, defense corporation, health, emerging technology, environment and H-1B visas on Thursday, 22 June, as joint statements between PM Modi and President Joe Biden. President Joe Biden held talks when PM Modi visited the United States.
Some of the deals included in this are India buying the 31 armed MQ9-Reaper drones at the cost of $3 billion. Currently, the officials of the senior administration community confirmed that defense outcomes come in calls with reporters.
Agreement between the HAL and G.E
In between the big-ticket defense deals that are considered as the agreement between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and General Electric (G.E.) for the co-production in India. In this, the GE 414 jet engines are available for the Tejas Mk 2 light combat aircraft.
According to the U.S. officials, it seems like a patting on the back for the deal, with the officials that describe the Indian side as surprised and thrilled. In the agreement between the HAL and G.E., the American side has taken to overcome the roadblocks according to this deal. The news of India buying the armed drones was also announced on Thursday.
Defense of U.S. and India ties
The defense ministries of both nations, the U.S. and India, also launched the session for the innovative platform, INDUS-X’, in Washington on 21 June. This platform is hosted by the U.S. India Business Council (USIBC) for collaboration.
In the collaboration, PM Modi expected to ink essential defense deals with the U.S. in his state visit. Here are some of the important key developments in US India’s defense ties.
- After the pandemic years that slowed down the visa process, the U.S. announced a pilot program to help people to renew their visas periodically.
- This program will expand the L skilled visas and H-1B visas by 2024 and other categories included in it. It opens the two new consulates in Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.
- India opened the consulate in Seattle and declared the new consulate everywhere again.
- India declares that they will sign the U.S. Artemis Accords, a framework of 25 countries for corporation and space exploration.
- The two countries declared the framework for human spaceflight this year and agreed to the mission to the space station in 2024.
H-1B visa renewal
It is determined that every year the United States government issues the 65,000 H-1B visa to companies that want to get skilled foreign workers, with 20,000 visas for workers with high degrees. The visas are valid for the 3 years and renewed after the 3 years.
As per the data coming from the U.S., the companies listed use the most H-1B workers that include Tata consultancy services and Indian-based Infosys, as well as Alphabet, amazon, and Meta in the United States.
Conclusion
The pilot program also consists of some workers who have L-1 visas, which are available to transfer the people in the company to positions in the U.S., said to some sources.
