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Prime Minister Narendra Modi got down to business in New York at a meeting with top US corporate honchos on Monday. He asked them to view India as a credible investment destination while assuring them of an easier business environment and a stable tax regime. He even told them that the recent cancellation of coal blocks by the Supreme Court should be seen as an “opportunity” to clean up the past.
In more than an hour-long breakfast meeting with 11 top American chief executives, Modi, flanked by foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and ministry of external affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, urged them to change their outlook towards India.
“India is open-minded. We want change. Change that is not one-sided. I am discussing this with citizens, industrialists and investors,” Modi told the CEOs while urging them to invest in India.
Soothing their nerves over the recent Supreme Court judgment cancelling over 214 coal block allocations, Modi told the CEOs to view it as an “opportunity”.
“I want to convert the Supreme Court judgment on coal allocation into an opportunity to move forward and clean up the past,” Modi said.
The 11 chief executives the PM met over breakfast at the swanky The Pierre included PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Citigroup chief Michael Corbat, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, Cargill’s president and CEO David W MacLennan, Caterpillar’s Douglas Oberhelman, AES’s Andres Gluski, Merck’s Kenneth Frazier, co-founder and co-CEO of Carlyle Group David Rubenstein, Hospira Group’s Michael Ball and Warburg Pincus’s Charles Kaye.
Modi asked the 11 honchos to invest in the country’s infrastructure development as “it creates jobs and enhances quality of life of our citizens.” The CEOs are believed to have raised the issue of retrospective tax amendments to which Modi told them no new cases would be taken up, sources told Business Standard.
The finance ministry has set up a committee under the Central Board of Direct Taxes to go into all fresh retrospective tax cases with fresh liabilities.
In an effort to sell India as a destination to do business, the PM discussed the ‘Make in India’ initiative with them, wherein he asked them to produce in India to boost the country’s manufacturing sector.
This was followed by separate one-on-one meetings with chief executives of six US multinational conglomerates with a presence in India and plans to expand their footprint in the country. The six CEOs who called on the PM separately before he left for Washington to meet US President Barack Obama were Jeffrey Immelt of GE, James McNerney of Boeing, IBM’s Virginia Rometty, Henry Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), Laurence D Fink of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein.
Aircraft maker Boeing’s McNerney told Modi the firm planned to “accelerate engagement with India.” Keen to develop 100 smart cities across India, Modi invited IBM to build the IT backbone of these cities. IBM’s Rometty also discussed software and the Digital India initiative with the PM.
Investment management company BlackRock informed the PM that it intended to hold a global investors' meet in the country next year.
India-US ties had taken a massive hit under the Obama administration, especially with relation to business and trade. The US Chamber of Commerce had been extremely critical of some of the policies that were rolled out under the previous UPA regime.
However, ever since the BJP came to power under Modi, the American investors have expressed contentment over the government's recent decision to increase foreign direct investment ceiling in the defence sector, railway network and insurance sector.
FDI inflows from US to India during 2000-2014 stood at around $13 billion, according to the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).
