In an exclusive conversation hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) in New York, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma made a strong pitch to U.S. businesses to look at India as a long term business and investment opportunity and outlined the various policies undertaken by the Indian Government to invigorate manufacturing and to create the right conditions for inviting investments into the country.
Sharma spoke about the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) being set up across India; the single window approval mechanism for investments; the fast-tracking of critical infrastructure projects; use of technology to minimize paperwork for investment proposals; the efforts to tackle the emotive issue of land; and the establishment of a Cabinet Committee on Investments chaired by the Prime Minister, as some of the steps the Government has taken to spur business and investments in the country.
While acknowledging that 2012 was a difficult economic year for India, Sharma pointed to the country's strong fundamentals such as thriving domestic demand, a high national investment rate (35 per cent) and a high savings rate (31 per cent) as factors that will continue to drive economic growth.
Sharma particularly emphasized that the U.S. and India share a larger, strategic relationship with deep and growing engagements in sectors such as aerospace, nuclear, defense, agriculture, information technology, communications, science and technology.
Joint collaborations in science and technology, innovation, research and development have further strengthened the bilateral partnership. He pointed to strong two-way investment flows, with U.S. FDI in India pegged at 32 billion dollars and Indian investments into the U.S. projected to stand at 13 billion dollars. At the same time, he stressed that partnership is a two-way process and that the imperative of free movement of skilled professionals is an aspect that needs to be recognized and respected.
In an effort to highlight the myriad business opportunities open to U.S. and Indian companies, a high powered CII CEOs delegation is accompanying Sharma during his visit to the United States.
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The delegation is led by Ajay Shriram, President-Designate, CII and Senior Managing Director and Chairman, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd.
The other members include Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII; Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises Limited; Analjit Singh, Chairman, Max India Limited; Rajan Navani, Managing Director, Jetline Group of Companies; and Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM.