11-24-2009, 11:57 PM
<b>Glamour and taste: Obama tent feast to curry favour with India</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Hollywood has been enlisted to provide some more: Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the billionaire founders of Dreamworks SKG, are all said to be on the list in recognition of their work as âbundlersâ of Hollywood donations to the Obama campaign. Mr Spielberg is also the beneficiary of a $550 million (£330 million) investment in his films by Anil Ambani, the Indian tycoon.
Mr Ambani will not be at the White House tonight, according to sources in the Indian delegation, but his older brother, Mukesh, will. He will join a third Indian billionaire, Ratan Tata, in a 13-strong group of business leaders whose presence in Washington with Mr Singh underlines the central theme of the first state visit of Mr Obamaâs presidency: commerce.
Trade and climate change dominated a rainy day of talks yesterday. Tonight, for a few hours, they will be eclipsed by the first big test of the Obamasâ ability to create something more memorable than mere politics, in what one White House veteran promised would be âthe most magnificent tent that you have ever been inâ<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mr Ambani will not be at the White House tonight, according to sources in the Indian delegation, but his older brother, Mukesh, will. He will join a third Indian billionaire, Ratan Tata, in a 13-strong group of business leaders whose presence in Washington with Mr Singh underlines the central theme of the first state visit of Mr Obamaâs presidency: commerce.
Trade and climate change dominated a rainy day of talks yesterday. Tonight, for a few hours, they will be eclipsed by the first big test of the Obamasâ ability to create something more memorable than mere politics, in what one White House veteran promised would be âthe most magnificent tent that you have ever been inâ<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->