BGA President and CEO Ernie Bower and BGA India Managing Director Ratan Shrivastava wrote an op-ed on how the United States and India can leverage the Quad for public-private partnership. The piece was published in Hindustan Times on May 25 amid Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to the United States.

In the piece, they argue that Washington and New Delhi should build on their two-way collaboration during Covid-19, which includes key contribution from corporations and industry associations in both countries, to support their respective government initiatives in fields such as Covid-19 vaccine and drug development and production. Doing so would capture the spirit of the Quad beyond defense – dating back to its founding role in supporting relief efforts following the 2004 Asian tsunami – and also provide an avenue for collaboration ahead of the upcoming in-person Quad Summit as well as a platform to build on to provide support to other countries in need.

“Building on the momentum of Jaishankar’s visit this week, the time is right to take this US-India relationship innovation regional, particularly elevating the private-public level cooperation to Quad,” Bower and Shrivastava argue in the piece, suggesting that key members of the private sectors of the Quad countries should be invited to join a discussion with the leaders and prepare for the upcoming in-person Quad summit with their government counterparts. “This new level of public-private coordination is a win-win strategy for all stakeholders in the U.S.-India relationship.”

You can read the full piece here.