Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the US for his second visit after taking the charge in 2014. Unlike his previous visit which was primarily focused around building diplomatic relationships, this visit is predominantly business centric. The long anticipated visit to the West Coast, Silicon Valley, created huge buzz – days before his arrival in the Silicon Valley.
Before heading to the Silicon Valley, Modi met and addressed Fortune 500 CEOs, media firms and key financial sector players, in New York.
The $ 4.5 trillion club! PM @narendramodi with leading Fortune 500 CEOs at a special event in New York pic.twitter.com/PhXNUR9DeN
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) September 24, 2015
Bullish on India. Here’s the full list of participants in the roundtable with PM @narendramodi on financial sector pic.twitter.com/Pfo0IP1dLt
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) September 24, 2015
The CEOs expressed confidence in the investment climate of the Indian market, the Indian leadership, and appreciated the positive tone of discussions. Most of the business honchos communicated their concerns for doing business in India, and they acknowledged the fact that Modi listened to the constuctive criticism on speed of approvals, speed of decision making, transparency in the process, etc. The candid meeting ended on an optimistic note with a hope that the Indian leadership is heading in the correct direction.
As stated by James Dimon, CEO, JP Morgan Chase
Indian Govt has already undertaken massive reforms and key message was to continue doing what you are doing
The Prime Minister, as mentioned in the tweets of Vikas Swarup, assured them that reform in governance is the topmost priority for him. He also asserted India’s endeavour for simplified procedures, speedy decision making, transparency & accountability.
Modi will soon be heading to the Silicon Valley. In the Silicon Valley, Modi is scheduled to participate in the first India-US Startup Konnect – organised by Indian IT industry body Nasscom, TiE Silicon Valley, and IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE India. Apart from interacting with start-ups from various sectors such as financial inclusion, agriculture, energy, biotechnology, and healthcare, Modi will be making exclusive visits to Tesla, Stanford, Google and Facebook. During his stay in the valley, he will be meeting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai of Google, John Chamber of Cisco, Paul Jacobs executive chairman of Qualcomm and Santanu Narayan of Adobe, and many other tech-giants.
The message of “Digital India” is loud and clear. Investors are expressing their confidence in the Indian market. It is high time that India starts taking strong steps to eradicate red tape, flaws in the laws and inefficiency in decision making.
