Obama using India trip to shape 'jobs strategy'

MUMBAI, India - Searching for help half a world away, President Barack Obama yesterday embraced India as the next jobs-creating giant for hurting Americans, not a cheap-labor rival that outsources opportunity from the United States.

Fresh off a political trouncing at home, Obama was determined to show tangible, economic results on his long Asia trip. By the end of the first of his three days in India, he was promoting $10 billion in trade deals - completed in time for his visit - that the White House says will create about 54,000 jobs in the United States, with contracts for companies including Boeing, GE and Harley-Davidson.

"For America, this is a jobs strategy," Obama said of his emphasis on trade, although it could stand as a motto for his 10-day trip.

The president is spending today with young people in Mumbai and heading to meetings in New Delhi, the capital. He was scheduled on Tuesday to visit Indonesia, where international flights to Jakarta were canceled Saturday over concerns about volcanic ash being spewed by Mount Merapi. He is expected to head to South Korea Wednesday and Japan on Friday, both for economic talks.

In India for the first time, Obama quickly got a sense of riches and poverty, history and tragedy. In Mumbai, his helicopter ride into this bustling financial center took in some of the country's slums. At the Taj Mahal hotel, was one of the sites of a terrorist rampage in Mumbai that killed 166 people, Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid quiet tribute to the 31 people slain at the hotel.

The president also celebrated the life of a personal hero, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a father of Indian independence and model of peaceful activism, by visiting Gandhi's home-turned-museum with his family.

Obama directly addressed the belief in the United States that India is robbing Americans of jobs. "There still exists a caricature of India as a land of call centers and back offices that cost American jobs. That's a real perception," Obama said. He noted the real concern here was that American corporate giants, if welcomed, would run mom-and-pop stores in India out of business and upend Indian culture. Instead, Obama said, the relationship between the countries is "creating jobs, growth, and higher living standards in both our countries. And that is the truth."

Meanwhile, many Indians are remembering the highlights from previous U.S. presidential visits: Bill Clinton wowed Indians by erasing the suspicions of the Cold War era; George W. Bush did it by ushering India into the elite nuclear club of the world.

Obama's charmed rise to power won him many fans in India, but his subsequent attention to China and pronouncements on outsourcing have left many wary.

Santosh Desai, an Indian newspaper columnist, said, "Obama has still to prove to Indians that he is swoon-worthy."

With The Washington Post