New Delhi, July 8 -- A comprehensive India-US trade agreement can transform India's growth trajectory, unleash competition and help the country realise its Viksit Bharat ambitions, economist and author Surjit Bhalla has said, cautioning that continued delays in clinching such a pact would ultimately benefit China.

In an interview with ANI, Bhalla said the absence of a trade agreement with the United States was one of the biggest policy failures of the past three decades and attributed it to resistance from entrenched interests within India's policymaking system.

"There is only one policy in my view... a major trade deal with the US. That will unleash animal spirits... and make us an important player in the global stage. Until we are an ...