"The moment has never been more right to tap the incredible possibilities between India and the US," John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said while participating in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit.
The statement indicated the eagerness of US to raise the bar of its bilateral engagement with India.
Indeed, following the two countries' readiness to tie up the loose ends of their relationship for mutual benefits, a feeling of gung-ho is there in both camps.
And this is apparent the way the two countries are trying hard to evolve consensus over issues like nuclear liability law, energy, climate change, defense and others before US President Barack Obama's scheduled visit to India as chief guest at the Republic Day parade.
On these issues, the two nations are expected to sign agreements.
India is working to address the concerns of nuclear technology suppliers It is said that New Delhi is making arrangements for indemnification of nuclear technology suppliers against liability law envisaging huge compensation to victims in the case of an accident.
"We are working on a solution with the insurance companies," R K Sinha, Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission was recently quoted by Reuters as saying.
General Insurance Corporation, Oriental Insurance Company and others are being brought together to build a nuclear insurance pool to indemnify nuclear technology suppliers.
Under this plan, it is said that companies that would build reactors in India would buy insurance and then they would charge more for their services to recover the cost incurred on buying that insurance.
Officials of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs say this is the best option Delhi can put forward to nuclear suppliers in the face of the tricky nuclear law.
Some nuclear suppliers like Areva of France have reciprocated positively to this proposal, still they want more clarification from the government on the liability issue.
During Kerry's visit the issue was broached so that it could be brought on the table in the course of Obama's two-day India visit, second one by a serving US President during his ongoing term.
Co-operation in Solar Energy to Figure in Talks Solar energy is another major area where India and the US may see signing of the agreement during the US President's forthcoming visit.
It should be noted that America is global leader in solar power.
In the period from 2010-14, the installed solar energy capacity in America grew by 418 per cent.
Given the global demand for clean technology, India does not want to remain a laggard on the emission issue.
Rather, as per officials of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, India and the US are expected to unveil a number of modest initiatives to expand research and access to clean energy technologies.
It may be noted that during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit in September, American authorities had raised concern on discriminations faced by American solar companies in India.
They had complained that India's solar energy program required US solar equipment manufacturers to use Indian-manufactured solar cells and modules instead of importing them from America.
They claimed that such policy created impediments before American manufacturers' way of tapping Indian market.
But since both countries are ready to weed out irritants coming in the way of their mutual growth, the US solar energy producers may see a red carpet welcome in India following Obama's visit.
Obama's visit may bolster bilateral defense partnership India and the US may also ink an agreement on a new defense framework during the American President's visit.
If officials are to be believed, the new defense framework will be more pushy and ambitious than its earlier version signed by the then Defense Minister of India Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld in June 2005.
According to them, the new defense framework's agenda will include bolstering bilateral defense partnership and increasing the scope of joint military exercises.
Also, collaboration in intelligence-sharing, maritime security and drive against terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will figure in the new defense framework.
Above all, the two countries, under the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), may give thrust to their joint-production and joint-development plan of high-tech defense technology like the next generation Javelin anti-tank guided missiles, MH-60 Romeo multi-role helicopters, long-endurance UAVs and 127 mm warship guns.
With regard to military exercises, it is said, India and the US are likely to upgrade their annual Malabar series of naval exercise from currently bilateral to multilateral one, accommodating Japan and a few more countries into it.
On space, the two countries' officials are working hard to give final touch to the NASA-ISRO programme on the launch of Synthetic Aperture Radar mission.
This mission to be launched in 2021, may see inking of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) The US may take up intellectual property rights issue with India Amid these issues, intellectual property rights appear to be more pressing agenda that American authorities may take up with their Indian counterparts during Obama's visit.
In this regard, the US wants India to complete negotiations on the long-pending Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).
The basic thought is that once formalities over the BIT are complete, more US companies would be lured into India, thereby transforming economic ties between the two countries.
Initiatives like Make in India, Digital India and Smart Cities are looked as great business opportunities by the US companies.
In fact, on the business front, the US appears keen to increase its trade with India to $500 billion a year from $97 billion in 2013.
To this regard, a final picture would emerge during the forthcoming Modi-Obama bilateral talks.
For the moment, hints coming in from Washington suggest that American drug companies with significant operations in India, are also pressurizing the Obama administration for raising their concerns with Delhi.
Their stand is that India's price-control framework hurts their margins.
The country's National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) recently added 52 drugs to its list of price-controlled essential medicines.
American companies fear that NPPA bringing more drugs under price control would curtail their profit margins.
Nonetheless, decks are being cleared, New Delhi's Hyderabad House is being spruced up and arrangements for giving a warm welcome to President Obama are being fine-tuned.