Business delegation sizes shrinking

The size of business delegations accompanying United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ministers is shrinking.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to the US and the UK without a business delegation in tow. Also, the closed-door business meeting during the recent India-EU roundtable at The Hague was a low-key event, with just six delegates each from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) interacting with an equally small European business delegation.

Initially, a team of nearly 80 business delegates was slated to accompany the Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath. It was reduced to just 12 after the talks were postponed to November 8. Also, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso withdrew his entire team of commissioners after facing resistance from the European Parliament. The delegation could not even talk to EU Trade Representative Pascal Lamy.

The Ficci delegation comprised Apollo Tyres Managing Director Onkar Kanwar, , Satyam Computers Chairman Ramalinga Raju, Bharat Biotech Chairman Krishna Ella, Wipro International's PRC Chandrasekar, Ranbaxy President Malvinder Singh, Ispat Industries Managing Director Vinod Mittal.

The CII delegation included ITC Chairman Y C Deveshwar, Hero Corporate Services CEO Sunil Kant Munjal, Hutchison Max Telecom Managing Director Asim Ghosh, Samtel Color Managing Director Satish Kaura, i-flex Solutions CEO V Sethil Kumar and Wockhardt Chairman Habil Khorakiwala.

The European delegation was smaller with representatives from ABN AMRO, UNICE, Alcatel, Alstom, DHV Group, Hutchison 3G Europe, Philips, Rabobank, Unilever and the ING Group.