San Francisco, April 22 -- April 22Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday that India is actively engaging with the new US administration and hopes to conclude the first tranche of the bilateral trade agreement "positively" by fall (September-October) this year.

"The long and short of engaging with the US is not just for this reciprocal tariff-related matter, but the country is also our largest trading partner with whom we need to have an agreement," Sitharaman said in an interaction with the Indian diaspora in San Francisco. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to launch talks for a bilateral trade agreement (BTA), which is part of a new goal-"Mission 500"-aiming to more than do...