Somewhere in the woods of Virginia, a tree-cutter owes his job to . . . India.

Or a coal miner.

Or an apple-picker.

Or, for that matter, a trucker or a train engineer.

So think about that when you read some news today that otherwise might be squeezed away somewhere in the world briefs: President Obama is in India.

So is Sen. Mark Warner.

So what, you might say. Glad you asked!

Obama — and Warner — are in New Delhi today to celebrate India’s Republic Day, that country’s celebration of its constitution. This is the first time a president of the United States has been invited for the event, and it’s a big deal in India — a sign of growing ties between the two countries, politically and economically.

During the Cold War, India was the leader of the non-aligned movement. Now, in a much more complicated world, India has become one of our best friends. When Edward Snowden ratted us out to the world about our global spying program, the Europeans were furious — but the BBC reports India quietly asked the U.S., hey, can we get in on some of that surveillance action? The Indians have their own terrorism problems to worry about.

India also has what is now the 10th-largest economy in the world, and it’s moving up fast. India’s gross domestic product has tripled in the past decade. Here’s another way to think of it: India’s population of nearly 1.2 billion is three times that of the United States. That means, The New York Times says, the size of India’s growing middle class alone is as big as the entire population of the U.S.

That can mean only one thing: There’s money to be made there.

Some of India’s newfound wealth is being spent here in Virginia, perhaps in some places that may not seem obvious at first.

The woods, for instance. Executives from the Hillsville-based Turman Group and the Fluvanna County-based Northland Forest Products both have been on trade missions to India; both have since exported wood products there. If you work in a sawmill in Virginia, you may need to thank someone in Surat.

If you work in the mines, you may need to thank someone in Mumbai. Norfolk Southern shipped 682,396 tons of coal to India through the Virginia ports last year. India’s fuel-hungry economy also complicates the global debate over climate change; we’ll come back to that.

Virginia apple farmers may need to thank someone in Ahmedabad — or Richmond, for that matter. Two years ago, you could count the amount of Virginia apples exported to India this way: Zero. Now, it’s $1.6 million worth of apples, accounting for more than 60 percent of the state’s total apple exports. Business is booming, be it in Bangalore or Bhopal.

So why thank Richmond? Because state government has helped open many of those trade doors in India. In 2005, then-Gov. Mark Warner became the first Virginia governor to make a trade mission to India (surely one reason he’s in the American delegation in New Delhi today). That trip to India was considered exotic, maybe even quixotic, then. Now, such trips are becoming almost routine.

Gov. Tim Kaine was headed that way in 2007 when he had to turn around and come home to tend to the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Gov. Bob McDonnell led a trade mission to India in 2011 and later established the state’s first trade office there.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe hasn’t been to India — yet — but he’s got three years to go, so the odds are he’ll wind up there eventually.

This is the part of state government that doesn’t make headlines, but does pay dividends — or, more important, paychecks to Virginians. Before Warner’s maiden trip to India, Virginia exports there totaled $102 million a year. Now, they’ve more than doubled — to $224 million. Scott Seyler of Northland Forest Products hails India as a market with “vast” potential; he also notes that it’s a “challenging” market due to “complex tariff structures and red tape” on the other end.

Virginia has other connections to the subcontinent. In 1999, Virginia Tech became the first American university to offer a degree program in India — a master’s in information technology through the S.P. Jain Institute in Mumbai. Tech had hoped to open an actual campus in India; that hasn’t happened yet (see the part above about red tape).

However, last spring Tech opened a research lab in the Amrita Research Park on India’s sunny and windy southern coast; then-President Charles Steger presided at the ribbon-cutting of what’s called the VT, India Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Innovation Center.

Today, scientists from Virginia Tech are working with their Indian counterparts on harnessing wind and solar energy. (Remember what we said earlier about India’s fuel-hungry economy?) The technical part involves using “hybrid composite materials” to design lightweight turbine blades “with high lift coefficient and optimum performance at low wind speeds.” The practical part goes like this: Tech researchers have helped get the price of wind energy there cheap enough that it’s now practical to use. Someday, if we’re lucky, the Indians will be exporting that technology back here to us and you’ll have a cheaper electric bill, not to mention cleaner air to breathe.

We see India’s influence in other ways, too: Movies. And we don’t just mean the surprise hit “Slumdog Millionaire” that took home three Oscars in 2009.

Actual Bollywood movies are now regularly showing up on Roanoke movie screens. They don’t come with trailers or advertising, so you may not realize they’re there unless you subscribe to the Vickie’s Bollywood Broadcast page on Facebook, set up by Vickie Holt, an Indian movie enthusiast in Roanoke. However, enough people went to see the Indian comedy “PK” that it ran for three weeks at Valley View Grande in late December and early January.

So, today, on Republic Day, go have some curry to celebrate. The way the global economy works these days, some of the money you use to pay for it may have come to you by way of India.