The economy, you nerd

The US President also offered collaboration in areas of science and technology and agriculture, which are also wholly welcome.

While such offers lack the immediate appeal of a gesture against terror, they hold enormous long-term potential, as past collaboration with the US in creating the Green Revolution or in building the Indian Institutes of Technolgy and Management amply bears testimony.

But economic cooperation will have to visibly benefit both economies, and not just India. India must accept the hand stretched out in friendship .

But partnership does not mean subordination, and India will find it easier to pursue its own interests working within a strategic partnership with the US. Dr Manmohan Singh can have the sense of satisfaction that his long and controversial investment in taking Indo-US relations to a new level is now visibly paying off.