(From top) Mazumdar-Shaw, Pilot, Manvendra and Mittal

New Delhi, Sept. 8: September is the coolest month in the Indo-US calendar, with naval exercises giving way to political visits, upscale Brand India promotions and Track Two conferences, culminating in a visit to New York by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The sound and fury over the Left’s protests notwithstanding, India’s America allure will be most visible when top business honchos mingle with young and articulate MPs at two back-channel events in the US this month.

The Aspen Group, co-chaired by former ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra and former US national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, will meet next week in Washington, just as the Left-UPA committee on the nuclear deal looks at just how closely India should embrace America.

Chandra has been mentoring the government-inspired and CII-funded Aspen Group for the last five years, perhaps the most powerful back channel between the two countries.

But it is the current crop of young and articulate MPs cutting across political parties in the Indian delegation that is interesting: Sachin Pilot and Deepinder Hooda from the Congress, Manvendra Singh from the BJP and Jay Panda from the Biju Janata Dal.

“Naturally,’’ said an Aspen participant, “the Indo-US nuclear deal will be on top of the agenda.”

By the middle of the month, Ratan Tata will lead a top team of entrepreneurs (among them Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Sunil Bharti Mittal) to New York to participate in the annual India-US CEOs Forum. Tata’s co-chair is Paul Hanrahan of AES Corporation, a global energy company with 30,000 employees worldwide.

Although the Left parties have so far successfully denied foreign universities from setting up shop in India, the CEOs’ Forum is expected to take up higher education as a focus.

Then there is the “Incredible India @ 60” promotion in New York later in the month. Remo Fernandes, Amjad Ali Khan, a BBC-moderated debate on democracy and sand sculptures of Taj Mahal, along with seminars on “India 2050: A Grand Strategy for India Rising”, organised by Yale University and CII, are some highlights of the festival.

Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee will be in the US around September 23 for talks with the Bush administration.

Mukherjee is scheduled to speak on behalf of India at the UN General Assembly on September 28. The foreign minister is standing in for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has declined to go to the UN for the second year in succession.

MEA sources said he will seek support for India’s nuclear deal during his meetings with Nuclear Suppliers Group member countries.

Sonia will speak at the UN on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary that has been acknowledged by the UN as International Non-Violence Day. She is also expected to address the Indian community in the US.

September will also witness two interactions with India’s old foe-turned-friend, Henry Kissinger. An indication of the distance both nations have travelled since Kissinger called Indira Gandhi unprintable names at the time of the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

Kissinger is expected to chat with both the Aspen Group next week as well as breakfast with Indian business honchos at the India@60 event.