New York, Apr 16 (IANS): With India focused on developing itself as a global hub for innovation, New Delhi wants the business community to explore new ways to advance India-US trade and investment ties to the next level.

"We need to keep in focus the larger picture of our relationship that is positive, progressive and mutually beneficial," Indian ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao said at the 8th Annual India Business Conference at Columbia Business School here.

"I think, now, more than ever before, in the US, as in India, there is a clear recognition in advancing the India-US relationship to a new level of higher engagement fully befitting of our strategic partnership," Rao said addressing the conference on the theme of "India: Maintaining Momentum."

One central aspect of wide-ranging India-US business ties has been their mutually beneficial nature, Rao said noting the Indian IT industry, for one, has helped build competitiveness for US companies and facilitated increased access to emerging markets.

Businesses between the two countries across a range of sectors of economic activity are more integrated than ever before, she said. "Clearly, it is a mutually complementary framework of ties."

Going forward among important factors in forging bilateral trade and investment links would be India's focus on developing itself as a global hub for innovation and India's commitment to modernise its manufacturing and increase its share in the GDP to 25 percent by 2022, Rao said.

The Indian infrastructure sector with financing requirements of about $1 trillion in the next five years, also represented a clear set of opportunities for investment and partnerships by US companies, she said.

Other factors for the attractiveness of the Indian market included its strong consumption economy; its skilled human resource base; its strengths in knowledge economy; its rapidly growing middle class, and strong trends in urbanisation, Rao said.