PM to announce Indo-US CEO forum during visit

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today met seven of the country's top corporate leaders who are part of the 20-member India-US CEOs Forum that is to be launched formally next week.

Sources said the meeting lasted nearly two hours but the nature of the discussions remained preliminary in nature. But it was not clear if all the 10 CEOs, who constitute the Indian side, will accompany the Prime Minister when he meets US President George W Bush.

At this evening's meeting, the CEOs conveyed to Singh that they were comfortable with the present macro-economic fundamentals, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said.

The policy regime at the Centre, they said, was not a cause for concern to the CEOs. But clearances at the state level remained a worry and often led to delays in implementing projects, they added.

After meeting Singh, the business leaders proceeded to have dinner with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

As of now, the Indian delegation has no fixed agenda. Instead, it intends to discuss ways to enhance US investments in India. They will discuss with their US counterparts the areas in which the Indian government needs to remove bottlenecks and report the inferences to the Prime Minister.

Of the 10 chief executives in the India-US CEO Forum, Pratap C Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, Bharat Forge's Baba Kalyani and ICICI Once Source Ltd's Ashok Ganguly did not make it to the meeting that lasted nearly 2 hours at the Prime Minister's Race Course Road residence.