There's a lot the U.S. and India can learn from each other - if we take the time to teach it.

by Terry Beaubois

Since my last article, I traveled to India for another Smart Villages Conference reflecting the progress made to date in state of Andhra Pradesh, and then I traveled to Texas to visit an EcoSmart Community that has started construction, just east of Austin, Texas.

Often I find people in the U.S. thinking “oh, poor India” because much of the news in the U.S. from there are focused on disasters, floods, train accidents — it’s understandable that we get that impression. My last trip in India was full of reports of hurricanes in Houston, then Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin island and the earthquake in Mexico, so some in India might have been thinking “poor U.S. and Mexico” It is my hope that through common interests in the building smart communities, we can build improved international relations and learn about and teach each other more about our successes in dealing with needed community improvements globally...