 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre) with CEOs of top financial institutions before a meeting with them in New York on Thursday")
India’s growth story has earned endorsements from top executives of leading global companies, including General Electric’s (GE’s) Jeffrey R Immelt and Toyota’s Takeshi Uchiyamada.
During his trip to India in September this year, GE Chairman Immelt expressed his confidence in India’s ability to become a manufacturing hub. After his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Immelt said: “One of the most exciting things since the last time I was here almost 18 months ago is the ability to do manufacturing in India.”
Immelt had expressed his confidence in the India story earlier the same month when he had said: “India is a growth engine for Asia, and we see huge potential for the country in the manufacturing space.”
Immelt had expressed his confidence in the India story earlier the same month when he had said: “India is a growth engine for Asia, and we see huge potential for the country in the manufacturing space.”
Immelt isn’t the only one bullish on India. PM Modi’s Silicon Valley tour in September this year saw many global CEOs coming out in support of initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, for example, said: “Digital India will bring about solutions for the challenge of digital divide.” Calling the ‘Digital India’ initiative exciting, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan said the initiative had the potential to transform India into a “digitally empowered knowledge economy”. Referring to the initiative, Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs said: “We are extremely excited and motivated.”
Of course, the list doesn’t end there. Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada had called upon Modi on September 2, 2015. The growing Indo-Japanese ties and the ‘Make in India’ campaign were discussed during the meeting. “He (Modi) has come up with campaigns to basically bring about a lot of reforms,” said Uchiyamada.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou had said: “We are not only going to make things here but we are looking at bringing the whole ecosystem here.” The statement had come against the backdrop of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Maharashtra government and the Taiwanese firm to invest $5 billion over three years, in setting up a manufacturing unit in the state.
Alibaba founder & Executive Chairman Jack Ma had expressed his interest in India during his meeting with Modi in Shanghai in May this year. Ma had said: “We are excited about India. We are excited about ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’.”
