Washington, DC: With trade high on his agenda, some 200- odd top US business chiefs, including soft drink giant Pepsico’s India-born CEO Indra Nooyi, are expected to join US President Barack Obama on his India visit.
Also expected are Honeywell CEO David M. Cote, who co-chairs the India-US CEO Forum with Tata group chairman Ratan Tata.
So is Terry McGraw, CEO of leading publishing house McGraw Hill, who took over from Nooyi as the chairman of the US Indian Business Council, representing 300 top US companies last June.
Two more of 12 US forum members, Louis Chênevert, CEO of aerospace major United Technologies Corp, and Ellen Kullman, chief executive of chemicals giant DuPont, may also be joining.
But there is no word yet whether Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pandit is going.
Painting a rosy picture of India’s long-run growth prospect, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the CEOs in June that “India offers investment opportunities in excess of $ 850 billion over the next five years” with an envisaged investment of $1 trillion in the infrastructure sector.
USIBC has also organized a Business and Entrepreneur-ship Summit in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai on November 6 featuring a keynote address by Obama demonstrating his priority “on creating jobs for America by cultivating deeper commercial ties with India, the world’s largest free-market economy.”
USIBC said its goal is to enhance two-way trade, now surpassing billion, spur investment by India into the US, create opportunities for greater US export-led growth of high technology and high-end manufactured goods that will support India’s $ 1.7 trillion infrastructure build-out, and foster new frontiers of technology collaboration.
