MUMBAI - India's financial capital Mumbai was set to receive US President Barack Obama at the start of his four-day visit to India beginning mid-day Saturday.

WASHINGTON - Given the bipartisan support for America's India policy, US officials expect a continued push by President Barack Obama for deepening ties with New Delhi despite Republicans capturing the House of Representatives.

NEW YORK - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had once said that a conversation with Barack Obama was "like verbal ping pong" and that the US president was the "most arrogant man" he had ever met, according to a media report.

In an era where even a strategic partnership between India and China is theoretically possible, the unrelenting emphasis on India's strategic relationship with the US often seems a fashion statement. As relations between the world's largest democracies get intensely scrutinised, diplomatic niceties constrain both parties from accepting that increasing divergences are pushing back the partnership to the basics.

Although the Congress' decision to exclude Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan from its election campaign in Bihar is not headline news at the national level, it still has damaging implications for the party.