US Looks Forward to Celebrating 250th Birthday With Indian Partners: Marco Rubio Ahead of India Visit

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United States embassy in India has posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, showing Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that the US wishes to celebrate its 250th birthday with Indian partners, as India is the world's largest democracy while the US being the oldest. The post featuring Rubio has come ahead of his upcoming visit to India -- from May 23-25. In the video, Rubio is heard saying, "As America gets ready to celebrate our 250th birthday, we look forward to doing it with our partners in India. India is the world's largest democracy, and we are the world's oldest. So we look forward to celebrating together."

This heartwarming development in India-US ties has come as US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, also said, "big things" lie ahead in India-US collaboration in the nuclear energy sector, as he commented on a mention by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis where the latter said that the state is ready to lead in nuclear energy and in India-US collaboration in the nuclear sector. The Chief Minister had made these remarks during a meeting with an executive delegation of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) under the 'US Nuclear Executive Mission to India."

Fadnavis talked about how Maharashtra is ahead in receiving Foreign Direct Investments (about 40 per cent of total FDI received in India) or about the state having 60 per cent of the country's data centre capacity, concentrated in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai areas. Fadnavis said that significant changes are taking place in the global energy transition process. Although Maharashtra has been making substantial investments in solar and wind energy for many years, nuclear energy will become essential for carbon-free and industrial-scale baseload power supply.More than 40 per cent of India's total foreign investment comes to Maharashtra. Nearly 60% of the country's data centre capacity is concentrated in the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai areas. Sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, logistics, and advanced manufacturing are rising on a large scale in Maharashtra, which will lead to a manifold increase in electricity demand in the coming years.India will become a country with rapidly growing electricity demand over the next several decades, and Maharashtra will be its largest industrial component, Chief Minister Fadnavis noted. Nuclear power will be crucial for the future industrial economy. Maharashtra is ready to lead the transformation in the nuclear energy sector, and he appealed to American companies to invest in Maharashtra.