Washington/New Delhi, April 13 : The India-US relationship has undergone a real transformation in the past two decades and is making its weight felt in world affairs, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, adding that during the severe Delta wave of the coronavirus infection last year while a lot of countries came forward to help, the one country that stood out for its help was the US. Participating in a conversation with students, faculty, and leadership of Howard versity, along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday evening, the EAM said the 4.5 million strong Indian diaspora in the US has helped forge relations between the two countries, and that the students, academics and researchers have contributed a lot to the progress in the bilateral ties. Speaking on the formation of an ‘India-U.S. Education and Skills Development Working Group’ that was decided during the 2+2 meeting Monday, the EAM said that India’s New Education Policy announced in 2020 aims to attract more foreign students to India, and the working group was aimed to address this issue. He said while the Study in India programme has been there earlier, “it is now that we are really focusing on how do we attract more international students. It is a work in progress, what has changed is the need to have international students.. we haven’t scaled it up in the way many countries have, there have to be mechanisms for that. Part of the working group is to address this problem. “We would like to see many more international students in India, which is good for our versities,” he said, adding that they would encourage student exchange programmes so that there can be more American students studying in India. To a question on the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), the EAM said that the Covid experience has been “enormously stressful and scarring” and the silver lining has been that it “showed what friendships and relationships in the world can do”. He said three vaccines that India is producing – Novovax, Corbevax and Covovax – are a direct outcome of relations with the US. “When everybody was busy making vaccines, and it was difficult to make the supply chains going, and at that time I reached out to Tony Blinken and shared what all we needed in India so that the supply chains would move smoothly.. and I count it as a great achievement and I must say he went out of his way to move the American system and getting things done,” he added. He said that during last year’s severe wave of the Delta variant, there was an enormous demand for oxygen and respirators and some drugs. “A lot of countries came forward to help and the country that stood out there was the US.” On STEM, he said that Indian students come to the US to study and become part of the research comm ty, it ends up as contributions that help people in their daily lives, including in such crisis situations. Jaishankar said the very strong trust and bonding between the two nations is the human element, which comprises the 4.5 million diaspora who move back and forth between the two countries. “We would like to see many more American students come to India, more tourists, and business people, all of it adds to the chemistry,” he added. Blinken said that 200,000 Indian students are enriching the American campuses, and that many US students are studying in India too. He said the new working group on education and skill training would help develop new research programmes, “so that more of our people can learn from each other”. It will help build bonds between the higher education systems of both countries. He said in Foreign Policy, the importance of people to people ties is very important. “What really matters is the bond between people, students, tourists, what brings us together”. Blinken said the US-India strategic partnership is “absolutely essential to combat the problems of the 21st century”. “We are looking across all different pursuits on how we can connect our two countries through exchange programmes and research programmes.” He described India as the most vibrant, vital democracies in the world and added that the two sides are finding ways to further revitalise, reenergise and cary forward these programmes. He said under Quad 500 million vaccines are being donated to the Indo Pacific region, which is a work which cannot be done without collaboration of the four partners – the US, India, Japan and Australia. RN