India, Nov. 3 -- Multiple phone calls between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and recent statements from the former, as well as the Senate confirmation of new US ambassador to India Sergio Gor, remind us that it is time for New Delhi and Washington to seize this moment of positive momentum and focus again on their partnership. The world and its challenges will not wait for us. Now is the time to remove the stumbling blocks impeding progress in the two countries' economic relationship. Apprehensive businesses and investors eagerly seek progress on a raft of issues, some of which are listed here. A substantial trade deal: Negotiators are working steadily; a deal struck between the two countries will be a strong vote of mutual confidence and reassurance to investors and companies who await clarity before they make investment decisions worth hundreds of billions. A deal that meaningfully reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers can be a bonanza for businesses, investors, and consumers in both nations. If tariffs come down, both sides can accelerate efforts to reach $500 billion in bilateral goods trade, spurring growth and innovation. Level playing field: We need to reaffirm our openness to two-way investment and shed the notion that either side's companies and investors are problematic. Such investment empowers and enriches societies, uplifts communities, upskills talent, elevates capability, and ensures prosperity. Discriminatory rules, regulations, procedures, taxes, and laws by either country are unhelpful to the stated goal of growth and prosperity. These need to be discarded by both. Policy certainty: Policy and regulatory uncertainty are the enemies of investment. Capital seeks a safe space to nest. The more New Delhi and Washington do to provide predictability, transparency, and global-best policies, backed up by accountability and swift resolution of disputes, the more will investment flow, creating jobs, contributing to taxes, and lifting capability and prosperity. In this regard, PM Modi's exhortations on further economic and structural reforms to impart dynamism to India's renaissance is most welcome. Powering artificial intelligence (AI) innovation: AI leadership in the free world depends on American capital and Indian brains. It also needs enormous amounts of energy. If both sides can take regulatory and legislative steps to put in place a conducive energy policy in both geographies, they can remain at the forefront of AI innovation. In an AI foot-race with Beijing, neither New Delhi nor Washington can afford to falter. To that end, nuclear civil liability differences cannot remain an obstacle. Empowering talent: While both sides need to acknowledge domestic politics about job creation, the two governments also need to ensure that American and Indian companies can access world-class talent where and when they need it in order to thrive and innovate. Skilled immigration in both directions should be enshrined as a mutual benefit to advance innovation on semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, defence production, and other areas where the two countries have an urgent need to remain at the forefront of technology. Defence production: Building on their ten-year agreement signed in July, both countries should intensify efforts to ensure the reliability of defence production -- for all nations facing threats to their sovereignty. Robust and resilient defence production is a key to deterrence, which itself is a key ingredient of peace. In these dangerous geostrategic times, New Delhi and Washington cannot afford to signal any drifting apart on this. Geostrategic congruity: Both countries have reminded the other that they have options with other partners. However, business retains its faith in the potential and the value of a strong US-India partnership. Both sides need to forge a glide path on Russian oil which remains a sticky issue, and they must focus once again on Quad and the shared geostrategic and Indo-Pacific convergence it implies. A workable strategic equation provides comfort to businesses in both countries, amid worries about supply-chain risks, choke-points, and technological competition between great powers. It is time for Washington and New Delhi to tango on the global stage. The two nations have a track record of overcoming differences through mutually respectful dialogue in private. Now that the tone of the relationship is again approaching warmth, and realities beyond soaring rhetoric have been laid bare, the two countries must get back to work. Relevance and reciprocity build relations. On that basis, the US and India can address the problems and, with effort and focus, restore ambition in their ties....