you are willingness to work to energy issues, one of the areas that could be a welcomed development would be with the villages in india as you know, you have served over there, we have double hthan the people in the united states, many times they are living there without adequate drinking water, no electricity. and those kinds of conditions are really ripe for deploying a solar panels or wind or something out in those villages. dr. pachari by the way has an ngo, where he has started an entrepreneurial model and puts a solar panel in a village and has one of the women that really

organizes the village organize it and charge it, and she leases it out to charge solar lanterns and that replaces the kerosene lanterns that are dangerous and not be used under nets and things. this seems to be a huge potential, if we partner with them, and help them, to help them get electricity into the villages without moving all of the village people into the cities, which i think could end up causing serious problems. with that, i'm not really asking a question there, but it's an honest or to be here with senat senator luggar and be up here chairing this, and i look forward to his questions and any others as we move along. >> thank you. let me raise a different subject for a moment, in recent days,

the press releases indicate that india's oil and natural gas corporation has come under pressure to finalize a service contract for natural gas production with iran. could you please give you your thoughts on the india company's involvement in iran's energy sector, particularly something of this significance? >> senator, iran and india have a long tradition of trade across energy and other fields. it is one that is clearly a part of our sanctions s regime that are hoping to see it significantly reduced. i noticed in the secretary's speech yesterday, he indicated that the current efforts to diversify india's sources of oil and petroleum and a reduction in the use of iranian oil to 10% or

less, i think they are positive developments. i think our own efforts to support india and looking at other sources of energy will be a contributor to this. and we will certainly, if confirmed i know this will be one of the issues that i will be spending a great deal of time on and working with the iranian sanctions legislation with our own policies and with the indians to work with them. >> well speaking of our assistance in this respect, as you pointed out earlier, large numbers of indians lack access to electricity and energy poverty limits their choices and this, this leads to my question,

please describe efforts as you see them being made by india unit practi-- india entreprenee a transformational dynamic strategy that alone really will be the able to meet the doubling of demand which we talked about in an earlier statement. >> the two official dialog to dialogs are on energy policy specifically on trade, and that includes a variety of looking at ways to encourage trade to determine how barriers can be reduced and to look at ways to make it possible for american companies to participate. we have good success stories. i was looking at the results of an arizona company that has been quite successful on solar energy

and on find using our resources at the embassy, our commercial as ifs and our discussions with the private sector through the india business council, the american chamber of commerce and others, to find those links where we can put american you companies in touch with opportunities for them to provide their expertise, and i would point to what iasd is doing, although the amounts of money are small, i think the pay back potential is very, very high. if we can encourage innovation, we are partnering with indian private sector on this, and we are providing a mechanism for funding, called the clean energy finance center that will develop opportunities to think creatively about how to finance new and somewhat risky adventures sometimes but to make it possible for the private sector to participate in this.

not to depend strictly on government funding. i think that although our projects are relatively small in their scope, the indians have a very good network of working with the many, many villagers and trying to work on this. if i could piggyback on senator udal's comments my experience in nepal with the lanterns, it allowed the children to have an opportunity to stay the school, and do their home work and encourage literacy. it also in a similar way empowered women and provided a source of income for them through the sales of these very small scale entrepreneurships with the lamps, it's good program. >> we will count on you to reduce the barriers for american

entrepreneurs. for the benefit of the people. >> thank you. >> you mentioned earlier the dialog between the united states and india on 20 different areas. last year, secretary clinton visited india and addressed the strategic dialog at that time and as you pointed out the dialog includes security, regional cooperation atechnolog, but can you highlight the most effective parts of the dialog and what you hope to make the most progress with in the coming year? >> i think my timing is quite good, foreign secretary matai is in the united states right now, i'm not in a position to meet with him. but he had meetings setting up the june or july meeting the next one here in washington of

the strategic dialog. he spoke yesterday and i could certainly endorse the agenda that he put forward of the things that are very, very important. certainly the energy dialog is one of those. the trade dialog and our cooperation in looking at our defense partnership. our look at making sure that we are looking at -- what we would call our home land security dialog, the counter terrorism dialog is a new one that will continue to be a priority for both countries. and as a former high school teacher i would like to see the education dialog raised to the cabinet level strategic dialog as well. >> presumablily intelligence sharing will be a part of that. >> absolutely as part of the home land security and counter

terrorism. >> thank you. >> thank you, ms. powell, congratulations on your nomination, i'm a strong believer that this relationship between the united states and india is a critical one. but i'm sure you are aware that i and other colleagues sponsored legislation in the congress by amendment that the president, the senate passed unanimously and the president signed into law with reference to sanctions on the financial institutions of the central bank of iran. and i have been encouraged by the efforts of japan, the efforts of south korea and others to look for ways to common into compliance with the law. they have come to it even as they face challenges, obviously, in doing so, but they have come to it with the attitude of how

do i meet these, the spirit of these sanctions and try ensure that we are not subject to any sanctions and that we are working, not only the united states but the international community to ensure that iran does not achieve nuclear power. however the indian government which is one of iran's large es crude customers seems to be rebuking the sanctions and looking for work arounds and considering payments in gold and transactions that detour around the central bank of iran, at the end of the day, they are still helping the iranian government have the resources to fuel their nuclear goals. it's important that all nations work together to confront iran and insist they stop their goal of nuclear weapons capability.

what is your view on the india's feels to support iran. will you carry the message that this is a policy priority for the united states and that we will not hesitate as appropriate to pursue the law as it is exists? >> senator, certainly if confirmed i understand and appreciate that this is going to be a very important topic and one of those that i will be dealing with very seriously and very early in my career. i think approaching it perhaps a little differently than you did, but to recognize that india desires to see a nonnuclear state in iran. they have supported us in the iaea four times. we continue to have a very

important dialog at the most senior levels of the u.s. government and i fully intend to be a part of that dialog. i believe that making sure that there's clarity on what the legislation and the u.s. sanctions mean, that they, theiritheir i implications are for one step and making is sure what actions india is taking, and secretary mathai in his public remarks comment ee eed that there appea be a reduction in oil that india receives from iran out of the total imports and that is a good sign, but i'll commit to working hard on this issue. >> i appreciate this. it incredibly important to us if a country like india, if

countries are basically going to pay in gold or find other ways to get around the sanctions, then while i appreciate what you said about india sharing our goals, well you could share our kbo goals but you could facilitate the resources for iran to achieve their nuclear power. we need more than their good will of sharing their kbogoals, need their actions. i hope if you are confirmed that this will be one of your top priorities. will you tell us as a committee that this will be one of your top priorities when you get there? >> it will be one of the top priorities. >> lastly and i will not take all of the time that i have left, but i do want to ask a question that i would like you to answer for the record. and it has to do with your

present position as the head of the, in essence the work that has to be done for our overa recruitment, i'm concerned, that despite the years i've been raising this, including with your advent to this office that the issue of spanish recruitment at the state department remaining pathetic, in the 2010 census, there's 16% of the population is hispanic but they are 6% of foreign service specialists. so, i would like two things for the record. one is can you your office share the most recent statistics with the committee as well as what

barriers you have encountered in any effort to recruit hispanics. this is probably in all of my work in hthis regard, this is oe of the worst departments of the federal government as it relates to hispanic participation, i appreciate about the state department reflecting the look of america, when 16% of the population is nowhere near the reality at what the happening in the state department, that does not include a full look of america, as you move on to the next assignment, i would like to get the benefits of any challenges that there were so we can have a plan as to how we change the numbers around. >> senator may i respond briefly. we will give you more details in the taken question, but i took very seriously your charge to me

when i accepted tdirector generl commission to try to improve the outreach to the hispanic and other minority communities to make sure that they understood what opportunities were available to them at the state department. whether it was the foreign service or civil service and to expand the information they had and theirability to ask questions and to be informed and participate with us. i share with you a desire to see a better than 5% ratio for the hispanics in the foreign service and a 4.9 in the civil service. but i can tell you the recruitment that we have undertaken. in the past year, we have among the people who have taken the foreign service test we had an increase of 82% among hispanics. from those that passed the test

having taken it, 172% increase by hispanics, and for the hiring, a 43% increase, those statistics, if we can maintain them and i certainly think that my successor will be committed to improve on what we started. i would like to share another statistic with the committee, because the other part of our outreach in addition to our minority populations was to our disabled veterans. and we have been able in the foreign service to increase by 350% the hiring of disabled veterans and among our specialists a whopping 4700% increase. so i would like to comment that the number of minorities including hispanics that are part of our fellowship programs,

they are opportunities that provide graduate education opportunities and internships and other experience in the department has increased dramatically and i personally served as the mentor for our hispanic group which has been e reenergized under the leadership of their president. >> i appreciate that and i look forward to the employment figures. thank you very much. >> senator webb? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and ambassador, congratulations. i wish you well in the new assignment that you i know you'll be conif i wered for. you have a terrific wealth of experience in this region, i think you'll be valuable to our country. you go there.

india is a long way from iowa. i went to high school in nebraska, i can remember one cold winter morning working in a grocery store and i was reading hawaii by james mitchner and was fascinated by the stories and he talked about mangos and i bought one from the store i worked this and i brought it home and i said some day i'll go where these are grown, and a couple years later uncle sam helped me out and sent me to vietnam, i know what it's like to be so intensely interested in an area and you certainly have the background when it comes to south asia and india. leads me to a question just

something that i have been wondering for some time, and maybe from your background you can help us understand it, help me understand it. we consistently speak of india has a democracy in political terms, one would think it's true. it seems true. we talk consistently about the entrepreneurship that comes you out of india, some of the most wealthy un y entrepreneurs in world are from india and yet, if you look at the world fact book, the per capita in india is about $800, at least the one i just looked at. that is less than $3 a day.

what are your observations about the nature of this democracy in terms of the obvious glaring inequality from top to bottom in its society? >> i think india's democracy is a growing one with right now they are engaged this the five states voting with over 200 million residents in one of those states. so, that part of the democracy in terms of its forms and norms is well established. they are voting after a very vigorous debate over policies and particularly in these five states of looking at the economic reforms whether they have answered the question that we would ask here in the united states, are you better off than you were at the last election?

they are very, very vigorous in that debate. they are looking at it very seriously. i take a lesson from my time as a teacher of american government and american history of reminding myself that our constitution starts with the words about forming a more perfect union. i think that india is in the process of doing that as well, it has enormous inequalities based on historic cast systems of economic differences but one of the engines that moves the society is a kmipt commitment t democracy, a ballot box that allows them to vote for their leaders and vote for change. i contrast my time in india where they were emerging from a closed economic system, one which required enormous amounts of work to start a business or close one, with the current system, it's not perfect yet,

it's still taking a long time in india, it's not a red tape free society, all of those things are freeing up india. i think that we have seen over the 20 years of economic reforms a tremendous number of people who have been removed from absence poverty they are into the indian middle class now, and they are able to afford education for their children and they are dedicated to that as one of the first things that they use their disposable income for, and a rising consumer network, better housing. >> so you would say, i have one other question i want to ask you, so you would say that you are optimistic about the potential for broader sharing in the society is th? >> i am. >> i want to get your comment on obvious and growing relationship

among the united states, india, in terms of particularly naval activities and security activities not only in the indian ocean but what why call the south china sea, we have seen naval maneuvers between india and vietnam and we have seen increased chinese may hae l -- chinese naval activity into the area. what to you think of that? >> it has interests that match ours in many ways, particularly in the as we have looked at our defense dialog, at looking at maritime security and looking for the cooperation in

humanitarian relief and in looking at piracey the dialog that we have through the defense policy group, through the indian ocean rim conferences, with india playing a growing role in that, i think it will assist us in making a policy that will make sure that we can protect those sea lanes and we will have a peaceful area there >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> ambassador the ongoing friction between india and pakistan is a strategic concern for the u.s. and for the region. do you believe that there may be a more on pro active role for the united states to play which could help ease tensions between the countries. for instance, the national

laboratories monitoring center, sandia is located in new mexico, has programs to help create trust between countries such as border monitoring, as part of it mission, the cent er sif er ass countries to get the tools they need to prevent arms proliferation, it's a soft power tool that could be used in such hot spots, it not a new proposal, a paper released by the center in 2001, written by retired pakistan major general ali-durani, called for a quota border monitoring model.

what are your viewpoints on relieving securitying tensions in the region. >> i believe in encouraging a dialog and the resolution of problems between india and pakistan. i believe that ideas supported by both countries, if the general's ideas would be endorsed by the track one or two negotiations that are active on both levels that there will be a role for the united states to play. i have had the opportunity to meet many of the people that are engaged in these dialogs and certainly think that the united states plays a role in encour e encouraging ideas and looking for additional creative solutions but that the primary responsibility rests with the two countries, having worked with so many of their leaders and their diplomats i'm confident that they have the ab ab ,ability to do that, but to not rule out our,ability to assist.

>> thank you, during our visit to india we visited a side, and it highlighted the needs for rural and indians in poverty. aiding women in prenatal care and v and training women to help to discuss community needs and solutions. what are your thoughts on such programs and how do you think our relations would be impacted if there are substantial cuts to such programs? >> i'm very, very supportive of these efforts. i think that particularly supporting women's health, it has a major impact on the health of their children. i have a particular interest in looking at women's education opportunities, particularly in

rural india as in many parts of the developing world, women have not had equal opportunity and access to education. this is an area that as india needs to expand their economy is one that is he very important, i think. and the aid programs that are being conducted in india i'm looking forward to visiting and have a better understanding of, put the one you visited is one that would warm my heart. i would like to have the opportunity to do that if confirmed. but, also to look at the opportunities to do things like the new stoves that are both erologically and in terms of health a much improved facility, it's something that secretary clinton has taken a great deal of interest in. in terms of the