Huge business delegation to accompany President Obama on India trip

New Delhi: Business and economy will feature high on US president Barack Obama’s agenda in his second visit to India.

Though officially, Obama is travelling to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations as the guest of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the presence of top American CEO’s speak of the emerging importance of India as an investment destination. The delegation of business chiefs includes Ajay Banga of Mastercard, Dave Cote of Honeywell, Bob Iger of Disney, Indra Nooyi of Pepsi, Arne Sorenson of Marriott, and Vivek Ranadive of Tibco.

Obama and Modi are likely to address top CEOs of both the countries in two back-to-back meetings where Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Sons; Mukesh Ambani, CMD of Reliance Industries; ONGC CMD Dinesh Sarraf; Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group and Vishal Sikka, CEO Infosys, among others, from the Indian side would be attending the joint address.

The first of these will be under the Indo-US CEOs forum, an Indo-US government initiative, which was instituted in 2010 during Obama’s first visit to India and the joint session is likely to happen on January 26, shortly after the Republic Day celebrations.

The two leaders will also address industry captains for another meet organised by the US-India Business Council, a lobby promoting economic cooperation.

“Smart cities, defence procurement, retrospective taxes, digital inclusion and ‘Make in India’ will feature in the discussions.

Both the countries are keen to prepare a road map for achieving a bilateral trade target of $500 billion (Dh1.84 trillion) by 2020 from about $100 billion currently,” said an official of the US embassy.

Several US companies such as Cisco, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Dell with proven expertise in these initiatives are keen to partner India in these projects, the official added.

In their joint statement in September, Obama and Modi had identified Ajmer, Vishakapatnam and Allahabad as areas with potential to develop smart cities.

During discussions, US companies are also likely to inform their Indian counterparts about the challenges they are likely to face in India while implementing these projects. On the other hand, Indian companies will also push for easier entry for its employees in the US.

On the trade side, the four working groups in place on agriculture, manufacturing and services are also expected to have a dialogue during Obama’s visit.

US companies are expected to announce a raft of investments especially in sectors such as manufacturing, defence and aviation, another official in the industry ministry confirmed without giving further details.

“New ventures are expected to be announced in areas of business process outsourcing, retail, transportation and financial services. Energy also remains on the top of the agenda,” said an official of the ministry of commerce, though unwilling to divulge further details.

“There is a lot of bonhomie between the world’s oldest and largest democracy. the feeling is that both can gain immensely by cooperating with each other,” said another official of the commerce ministry.