The delegation, led by industry minister Sikander Bakht, will take up during their four-day visit issues relating to power, broadcasting and entertainment, IT and telecom, intellectual property rights and service and also the possibilities for accelerating the inflow of investment.

The 24-member team, sponsored by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the ASSOCHAM, will participate in the annual general meeting of the US-Indo Business Council, a joint release of the chambers said.

This is the first ever business delegation to visit US during June 12-16, after the US senate voted on June 8 to suspend economic sanctions on India and Pakistan for five years.

Issues like H1B visas for greater movement of software professionals, insistence on wage parity for Indian ITprofessionals in the US, recognition by US institutions to the certificates awarded by specified Indian institutes in the area of medicine, software, engineering would also be discussed.

In the area of broadcasting and entertainment, a strong presentation would be made to both the governments about India's infrastructure capability so that the American companies can make this as a production base with considerable cost advantage.

The possibilities for broadcasting equipment suppliers from the US, collaborations in the direct home services, possibilities of collaboration in Internet services through cable operations will also be explored, the release added.

The Indian side will also apprise the American businessmen about the progress achieved in the implementation of laws governing intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the government's commitment to WTO norms.

The bilateral trade between the two nations during 1997-98 was over $ 10 billion of which exports from India was around $ 6.6 billion andimports from US was $ 3.6 billion. The United States investment in India has been rising since 1991 and peaked in 1997 touching $ 4 billion.