New Delhi, November 7
Ahead of the delegation-level talks between India and the US slated for tomorrow, visiting US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a one-on-one discussion at the latter’s residence here this evening.

The meeting lasted some 25 minutes where Manmohan Singh reportedly raised issues of concern to India. This included terrorism originating from across the border, India’s assessment of the Af-Pak situation, transfer of key military equipment by the US to India’s western neighbour, enhanced and real time intelligence sharing between India and the US to prevent future terrorist acts, removal of key Indian establishments like the DRDO from the US entities list and about China’s military growth in the recent past.

For the industry, the PM raised the issue of outsourcing that has been on the boil in the IT industry in the US and was impacting Indian companies, sources said. The recent “barriers” in offshoring work from theUS has irked Indian companies.

Even as the two men met, their wives Michelle Obama and Gursharan Kaur had a separate meeting. This was followed by dinner hosted on the lawns of the 7 Race Course residence of the Prime Minister in central Delhi. It was attended by a select group of 80 persons comprising political bigwigs, business leaders, actors and sports personalities. In November last, Obama hosted the first state dinner of his presidency in the honour of Manmohan Singh on the lawns of the White House.

Over dinner, the Obamas and Singhs seemed relaxed as they were seen smiling and enjoying themselves, sources said. The food catered by the Maurya Sheraton had mutton raan, chicken pulao, grilled prawns, kheer and an assortment of cakes among other items on the menu.

On the high table with the two couples were Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Pranab Mukerjee. The rest of the guests were seated on other tables. Obama was introduced to each of the guests before the dinner while a BSF band comprising camels — the ones that do the Beating the Retreat ceremony — regaled the guests.

Among other invitees were Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Bollywood star Aamir Khan, music composer AR Rahman, activist Sunita Narain, Industry captains Ratan Tata, Azim Premji and K Narayanamurthy, noted lyricist Javed Akhtar and his actor wife Shabana Azmi. Among sportsmen, chess grandmaster Vishwnathan Anand made it to the list.

From Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister AK Antony and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna were invited to the exclusive do, besides BJP leaders LK Advani and Arun Jaitley. Ministers Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and Prithviraj Chavan were in attendance as also young MPs Meenakshi Natarajan, Priya Dutt, Harsimrat Kaur and Kanimozhi.

Top aides to the Prime Minister, including National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Principal Secretary TKA Nair, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, India's ambassador to US Meera Shankar and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia were also on the list of invitees.

From the American side, the invitees were National Security Adviser Tom Donillon, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer.