Penny Pritzker: pragmatic dealmaker

When U.S. secretary of state John Kerry arrives in Delhi for the 5^th India-US Strategic Dialogue, he will be carrying pretty much the same old attaché case of issues and officials as he did when he came for the 4^th Strategic Dialogue a year ago. Given that he is engaging with a new, intense leadership in Delhi, one which could be more open to doing business with Washington, will this used bag be any good?

It may not have been, had it not been for the inclusion of Penny Pritzker, the new U.S. Commerce Secretary. Pritzker, 55, a hotelier, banker and astonishingly successful Obama fundraiser and friend, is the only new heavyweight element in Kerry’s India entourage. She was appointed to the position in June 2013, and has begun to invigorate a ministry that has been virtually somnolent in the last two decades, and a job that has been described variously by U.S. politicians as “one of – if not the most – worthless of all the Cabinet posts there are.”

Clearly Pritzker is on a tear to change that reputation. Her background is a help. Pritzker is one of the heirs to the Hyatt hotels fortunes, and is an entrepreneur herself, having started five companies and added thousands of U.S. jobs. She has gained a reputation over 30 years of building businesses and knowing when to shake them down. She has been active in civic affairs in Chicago especially in public education reform. She combines high physical energy and discipline – a result of running several marathons and triathalons – with creativity. The hugely successful ‘small donations’ campaign that built Senator Barack Obama’s election war chest and defeated Hillary Clinton, was Pritzker’s brainchild.

This is all good news for the India-U.S. bilateral, that has suffered from a lack of energy and creativity. Four strategic dialogues have yielded nothing but frustration for the U.S. side, and lethargy from New Delhi. With Pritztker as co-driver with Kerry – she also helped raise funds for his 2004 bid for U.S. President – this 5^th Strategic Dialogue can be a step up, or more.

Her year at the Commerce Department shows why. Pritzker is focused on boosting U.S. manufacturing and investment, on innovation and on using data smartly. She has already visited Silicon Valley, urging entrepreneurs there to commit to more enterprise and of her available assistance. She is a data nerd, pushing to use and organize government data better, creating customer-service databases that will make U.S. businesses more competitive globally, or that will save energy by measuring pedestrian patterns at home. Unlike the snoopers in the U.S. government’s PRISM programme, Pritzker believes in the free market benefits of Big Data – the new energy in U.S. urban policy – and its ability to create entrepreneurship and business opportunities. And she has been travelling around the world to press for a greater U.S. business and trade presence. Africa, China, West Asia, Asean – and now India.

In India, she is expected to be a hardline advocate for U.S. commercial interests. But rather than allow the dialogue to stall further, it is likely that the businesswoman and entrepreneur in her will know when and how to hold or fold a deal. Given India’s fragile economy, pushing it to the wall on capacity it does not have, will do no good. Instead, creative suggestions for joint projects like meteorological technology that can save lives in a time of intense climate change, will go down better. So will a consideration for job-creation in India – a key goal of Prime Minister Modi – instead of a continual opposition on ‘off-sets’ or the co-production of defence equipment in India. India can cut a deal where the U.S. drops its demand for a stricter Intellectual Property Rights regime in pharma and focus on IT where India and the U.S. see eye-to-eye.

Will Penny Pritzker reveal herself as a pragmatic policymaker? Will she be able to infuse her Indian counterparts with the same energy that she did with her department back home? The chances are good that she will. After many years of disappointment in the bilateral, it needs a new, positive chemistry. Pritzker’s practical deal-making instincts may be just the alchemy required to keep India and the U.S. bonded.

Manjeet Kripalani is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations.

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