It's business first with Uncle Sam

For the first two days of Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US, the focus was on his interactions on the margins of the UN General Assembly and whether there would be any sort of meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

But the most important aspects of his visit will be the meeting with President Obama and his efforts to woo American business and investment to India. Much has been made of the reception being hosted for Modi by the Indian-American Community Foundation at the Madison Square Garden, a venue best known for rock concerts.

The event on Sunday is expected to attract a crowd of some 20,000 and will be beamed live on giant screens in several cities. But this is just part of Modi's efforts to connect with a diaspora that has strongly backed the strongman from Gujarat over the years.

The hard work will begin when Modi arrives in Washington on Monday for his meetings with Obama and other key players in the US administration, including Vice President Joe Biden, and members of Congress.

Besides the all-important task of establishing a rapport with Obama, Modi will have to tackle a host of tricky issues that have affected bilateral ties in recent years. Apart from US concerns about India's nuclear liability law and intellectual property rights issues, India's worries about terrorism, and the situation in Afghanistan ahead of the withdrawal of foreign forces are expected to come up in the talks.

The Indian leader will also be looking towards his interactions with American captains of industry to deliver big-ticket deals that can give a much-needed boost to India's infrastructure and manufacturing sector. In fact, it could well be argued that Modi's "Make in India" initiative could well become the centrepiece of his maiden visit to the US.