NEW YORK: The first year under Prime Minster Narendra Modi has been used effectively to lay the foundation for India's rapid transformation and for robust and purposeful diplomacy, the country's envoy to the US said.

"As we mark one year of India's current government, it is difficult not to see the changes in the way of doing business and not to see in them cause for optimism and satisfaction," Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh said.

In his keynote address on 'India Under Modi: One Year In' at thinktank Asia Society, Singh said Modi government's first year has been used effectively to lay the foundation for India's rapid transformation and for robust and purposeful diplomacy.

"There have also been new parameters in India's engagement with the US...There is more to come in (all the areas) and with each passing year we will make further progress," Singh told a packed audience that included former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The Indian envoy said that the past year has demonstrated that good economics can also be good politics in India.

"We are at a qualitatively different phase in India's domestic transformation, in India's foreign policy approaches and in India's engagement with the US than we were a year ago," he said.

In the past year, India's relation with the US has been "completely transformed," Singh noted.

"The US was quick to offer to partner with India in realising the goals that our new government set for India's transformation and as a result the narrative in our relations have begun to reflect new found energy and optimism," he said.

Emphasising the "excellent personal friendship" between US President Barack Obama and Modi, he said the American leader was the first to visit India twice during his tenure and first to be the Guest of Honour at the Republic Day celebrations.

Highlighting the extensive interactions between US and Indian officials in political, economic, defence and cultural areas, Singh said India and the US are engaging on a bilateral investment treaty and agreement on social security.

In defence, the two nations have made tremendous progress in ironing out differences. The civilian nuclear deal is moving beyond the buyer-seller relationship to a "technology partnership and co-development."

Singh termed the first year of Modi government as a "yearof omnidirectional diplomacy" which saw reciprocal and intense exchanges with India's immediate neighbours, bold initiatives with its maritime neighbours, robust partnerships with major countries, a dialogue with the developing world and high-level engagement with many countries where India was conspicuous by its absence for many years.

"Enhanced engagement with neighbours in South Asia and in the Indian Ocean region has been a hallmark of the government's diplomacy," he said, adding that New Delhi has set ambitious targets in trade and economic areas.

On China, Singh said the government has "sought deeper economic ties and robust and candid political dialogue."

India has engaged the world as a more "confident and outgoing" nation, Singh said as he cited the high-level visits to over 100 countries by Prime Minister Modi and the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the past one year.

Pointing out that the broad direction of economic reforms has been set, Singh listed the various government measures taken to boost growth and facilitate ease of doing business.

"The government passed a stringent law and enhanced the international outreach against blackmoney and can claim credit for absence of any corruption scandal in the last one year... This has helped bring down the transaction cost of doing business in India," he said noting the "transparent" and "clean" coal and spectrum auctions.

"In the last one year, improvement in the pace of decision making and introduction of a variety of new ideas and initiatives have changed the perception of policy slowdown that had dented the image of the India story in the last few years," he said.

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