alan friedman lets talk about the relations with the obama administration. there is a rumour that a new usindia trade and investment agreement is near: is that true? >>sharma: that is true. we had a meeting ofhe usindia trade policy forum, i have been to washington, ron kirk has been here twice: he came for the wto ministerial, he also came for the trade forum. the focal groups have met, we are going to sign a framework of cooperation on trade and invtment, hopefully during the forthcoming visit of the prime minister and later on we will have the treaty of the tradeand investment agreement. and there are other developments on the way, we are talking about them. >>friedman: what about progress with theuropean union? where does india stand? >>sharma: we have had many rounds of discussions on trade and investment agreement. this is after the helsinkisummit indiaeu in 2006 accepted the recommendations of the high level group. it will be in the interest of both india and the eu, we have a strategy partnership, eu is indias largest trading partner,we have annual t

our executive editor alan friedman sat down with the indian minister for road transport and highways kamal nath, to find out more. >>this is the old india and this is the new india. the government has begun a 50 year project to widen and pay 40.000 miles of narrow, dilapidated national l highways with the first leg budgeted at 6and a quarter billion dollars set to be completed by next year. 92 billion dollars will be spent onroads by 2012 mainly on 4 and 6 lanes superhighways. the man driving the project forward is the minister for road transport and highways kamal nath. he was formerly minister of commerce and industry where he gained a reputation as a tough and outspoken operator often criticised by richer nation forbeing overprotective of developing countries. >>friedman: kamal nath, welcome to world business, good to have you with us. you have announced plans for what must be the most ambitious public private partnership in the world in 20092010 to build roads and highways in india. give us a quick facts and figures portrait of that plan. >>nath: well if you plan doing 7000 kilom