Under-secretary of international affairs of the US treasury John D. Adams on his day?s tours. Picture by Amit Datta

Under-secretary of international affairs of the US treasury John D. Adams?s visit to the city on Wednesday highlighted the strengthening of bonds between the two nations.

He met, among others, state finance minister Asim Dasgupta and visited Bandhan, an NGO in Ultadanga, dealing in micro-financing. Last year, the organisation received a pro-poor innovation challenge award from micro-finance consortium Consultative Group to Assist the Poor.

The under-secretary also attended an interaction with industrialists and businessmen at the American Chamber of Commerce and the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

Adams has worked for three Bush administrations, starting in 1989 with George Bush, and was a senior member of the Bush-Cheney electoral campaign in 2000. He became the under-secretary in August 2005.

Accompanied by US consul-general Henry Jardine, Adams later dropped in at Chembiotek Research International, part of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), in Salt Lake.

The company engages in ?basic and applied research in the field of life sciences? and claims to have invested over a billion dollars in India till date.

At the meeting, TCG director Swapan Bhattacharya outlined the work of the company in developing new drugs to combat ?both third and first world diseases?.

He pointed out that the US-based group has an ?ongoing commitment to West Bengal. For example, we established the first information technology park, and as a fast-growing company, we predict that we will employ over a thousand people in the state by the end of the year.?

Bhattacharya also highlighted the entrepreneurial programmes that TCG sponsors.

Adams seemed enthusiastic about the company?s work in Calcutta. ?Projects such as these just go to show the synergy between our two countries,? he remarked.

When asked what he thought of the state governments that he had visited, Adams said: ?Since I arrived, I have been interacting mainly with representatives of the Centre. In fact, my meeting with West Bengal finance minister Dasgupta on Wednesday was my first interaction with a state government functionary in India.?

?Both India and America have long histories of federal government. The similarities are striking,? Adams observed.